There is great tension between the Spanish government and the European Parliament, a few days before the mission of the Budgetary Control Commission of the European institution with the aim of monitoring how the European funds of the Next Generation EU are being executed. “We will go to Spain because the Government does not tell us where the recovery funds are,” declared the president of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Commission, the German conservative Monika Hohlmeier in an interview with ABC newspaper. And the Spanish Executive has responded this Thursday with a battery of data to allay suspicions and underline that Spain has already resolved calls for aid and tenders for Next Generation Funds for 23,000 million (of the 31,000 already received so far) to finance more than 190,000 projects throughout the national territory.
The tension between the two parties is evident, even though the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, wanted to keep her manners this Thursday: “It is not surprising that the European Parliament comes to Spain first, taking into account that we are the most advanced country” in the implementation of European funds, said the Minister of Economy this Thursday when presenting the Third Report on the Execution of the Recovery Plan. “The Government is fully willing to collaborate with the European institutions. The execution of the plan has been marked by transparency, dialogue and good management of European resources,” added Calviño, mentioning the favorable reports from the European Commission . According to the data provided by Calviño and by the Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Montero, Spain accelerated the rate of execution of European funds to reach an average of 2,000 million per month in 2022; This average has risen in a timely manner to more than 9,000 million in January 2023, an amount that means a third of the total investment planned for 2023 from European funds.
crossover cards
In a letter signed by Calviño and Montero this Monday, the Spanish Government wanted to convey to Hohlmeier this message of efficiency and transparency. In the letter, to which the Reuters agency and eldiario.es had access, it was pointed out that the positive assessment of the European Court of Auditors on the first disbursement of funds to Spain “reflects the commitment to rigor and control.” But Hohlmeier has criticized this Thursday the leak of the letter to the Spanish media and has urged Calviño by letter to facilitate the mission to control EU funds and not condition the (non-binding) conclusions that will be derived from it, according to what they have summarized by the Efe and Europa Press agencies: “It is surprising that the letter [de Calviño y Montero] was disseminated to the press very shortly after I received it and before the members of the Commission and myself had the opportunity to take good note of its content”, the MEP complained in her letter.
“We want to know why there is a serious problem of execution and transparency,” the PP MEP explained to EL PERIÓDICO Isabella Benjumea, which will accompany the mission and which places within the “democratic normality” the work of budgetary control that the European Parliament has proposed. “The question is not how much spending the government has committed, but how much has been spent on paying bills,” Benjumea notes.
Mission members and agenda
The delegation that will visit Spain is made up of the German Monika Hohlmeier (of the European People’s Party), the Portuguese People’s MEP Jose Manuel Fernandesthe socialists isabella garcia (Spain) and Caterina Chinnici (Italy) and Jorge Buxadé (Vox). The Spanish government views the conservative bias of the members of this ‘men in black’ mission (as this type of task is known in colloquial language) with suspicion. Not surprisingly, the previous criticisms expressed by Hohlmeier connect with the arguments that the Feijóo PP puts forward against the government’s management.
As companions of the members of the parliamentary mission and without being able to contribute to the preparation of the final report, they will travel to Spain Isabella Benjumea (PP), Eider Gardiazabal (PSOE), Eva Poptcheva, Susana Solis (Citizens) and Ernest Urtasún (Catalonia in Comú). In addition, representatives of the European Court of Auditors and the European Commission are expected to attend as ‘observers’.
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The mission’s meeting agenda includes meetings with regional councilors from Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragon, Andalusia and Extremadura. Also, meetings with representatives of CEOE, Anfac, Chamber of Spain, ATA, Digitales, Adigital, Ametic, AEB and UGT-Fica. In addition, interviews with partners from the consulting firms E&Y and PWC have been scheduled, as well as with four journalists from El País, El Mundo, ABC, The Objective and Follow the Money. On the part of the Government, appointments have been scheduled with Vice President Calviño, with the Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Montero and with the Minister of Social Security, Jose Luis Escriva.
For the PP MEP Pilar Benjumea, the objective of the mission is twofold. On the one hand -he explains- it is the first time that the European Parliament is going to evaluate the design of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. “This first analysis will be done on Spain because we were the first to request transfers and we are the ones who have received the most money. Then the rest of the EU members will visit.” Secondly, the mission will try to examine “how the European money that Spain has in its accounts is being used”.