The Community of Madrid will receive 9% of the total European funds that will be distributed among all the regional governments. An amount that they consider insufficient, as explained in an interview with the Economist Paloma Martín, Minister of the Environment, Housing and Agriculture of the Community of Madrid (CAM), who estimates that the correct allocation should be 18%, “due to our weight in Spain”.
As the counselor explains, “arbitrary criteria are used when deciding on what and where these European funds are to be applied and the needs of the autonomous communities are not taken into account and the distribution is not made according to objective criteria”. Thus, he assures that “Madrid is granted investments with a percentage much lower than that which would correspond to us if they took the population or regional GDP as a reference, so we receive less money than other regions.”
On the other hand, Martín is critical of the management being carried out by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez and highlights that of the more than 70,000 million European funds that reach the Government of Spain in the form of subsidies, “we have only been informed to the autonomous communities of 20,000 million. This means that we do not know what they are going to allocate the 50,000 million that are being reserved ” .
In addition, the counselor points out that of the 20,000 million “it tells each autonomous community how and where we can invest that money, without leaving any room for decision to the CCAA and it is also done in a non-objective way.”
For this reason, Martín values ”the constant request that is made from the Popular Party to establish an independent expert study commission to analyze the fate of those billions of euros.”
This is such a high volume of capital that it is also managed with such a tight schedule that there are risks that its implementation and absorption of funds will be complicated, that is why Martín asks for “a lot of responsibility.” “Brussels, within its roadmap, has set criteria and demands that structural reforms be made to change the way things work in certain deadlines, meeting specific milestones”, explains the counselor. “In this way, part of the financing is advanced, but if it is not shown that certain milestones are met and the required reforms are not carried out, those funds will not continue to arrive for the projects we want to develop,” he warns.
The Housing Minister recognizes that “the challenge is enormous” and ensures that in terms of rehabilitation , which takes a large part of the funds, “we are already working with very specific sectors, from City Councils to see what programs can be carried out in its municipal terms, until with representatives of neighborhood communities, companies and industries to move forward as far as possible “, Martin specifies.
11,000 homes
An important part of the European funds will go to the market for the rehabilitation of buildings and neighborhoods. In this sense, Martín highlights that at the moment 11,000 homes are being rehabilitated in the Community of Madrid spread over 60 municipalities .
Now, with the arrival of European funds, “there is also an opportunity for everyone to make investments to improve energy efficiency with the possibility of changing the roofs of buildings, windows, installing photovoltaic panels for self-consumption and facilitating energy savings. Thus, a series of initiatives and aid will be deployed that will be aimed at individuals but also at companies, communities of owners and industries for the complete rehabilitation of buildings and homes. “
