SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of the Canary Islands has allocated 1,534 million euros to date in projects financed through the European reconstruction funds, an amount that includes the items that will be endorsed to the React-EU program and the Mechanism for Recovery and Resilience (MRR ), as advanced by the Vice President and Minister of Finance, Budgets and European Affairs, Román Rodríguez.
The vice president, head of the Steering Committee for Plans and Projects (the body that coordinates the management of these funds), specified that 630 million correspond to the participation of the Canary Islands in the React-EU and 904 million to the MRR. Both programs are part of the European instrument called Next Generation EU. The first of them must be executed between the years 2021 and 2023, while the second slides until the year 2026.
Román Rodríguez indicated that the allocation of the React-EU has been completely closed for months, while that of the MRR is being determined based on the agreements reached in the sectoral conferences held by the ministries of the Government of Spain with the respective ministries of the Government of Canary Islands.
In any case, Rodríguez stressed that the management that the autonomous government carries out of the Next Generation EU funds is in line with the schedule established by the European institutions and the Government of Spain, both in the execution of resources and in their planning.
“We are responding effectively to a challenge of the highest demands from the organizational and executive point of view, with the development of very diverse tasks that will guarantee not only the execution of the funds but also their efficiency from the economic and social point of view”, the vice president pointed out.
FIVE PLANNING INSTRUMENTS IN PROGRESS.
Román Rodríguez wanted to recall that the Canary Islands Government has already approved five Strategic Planning Instruments (IPE) of as many bodies of the Autonomous Community, in which the objectives and the procedure for the execution, management and control of both programs are determined.
Specifically, those corresponding to the departments of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning have been approved; Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth; Education, Universities, Culture and Sports. In addition, those corresponding to the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) and the Canary Islands Tax Agency have been validated.
This planning also includes the personnel needs for the proper execution and management of the funds, so that there is a forecast for the assignment of about 200 employees to new provisional administrative units, although the departments themselves will finally decide if they cover the entirety. of squares.
Of the 904 million euros programmed to date under the MRR, the highest amount for ministries will be for Public Works, Transport and Housing, with 268.2 million euros, followed by Education, Universities, Culture and Sports, with 154, 2 millions; Social Rights, with 123.5 million and Ecological Transition, with 123 million euros.
In relation to the 630 million of the React-EU, which may be executed between the years 21,22 and 23, the vice president announced that the Executive will be in a position to certify some 200 million euros at the end of this first year, with which These funds may be released on the schedule.
Rodríguez recalled that the React-EU essentially consists of a reprogramming of the structural funds of the European Union, so their certification corresponds to the traditional regulations of these investment programs; In other words, the Government advances the money, executes and communicates to the EU that it has complied with the project presented, which translates into payment of the same.
He stressed that the Government of the Canary Islands has been executing projects under the React-EU for months, including the call for direct aid for SMEs and the self-employed for 87 million euros, already granted and, therefore, executed this year, or the 30 million euros of compensation to be distributed among ERTE workers whose income is lower than the minimum interprofessional salary.
The counselor insisted on the importance of the Canary Islands having placed itself in a good position among all the autonomous communities, receiving 6.3 percent of the total funds, “two points more than its percentage of the population, which has been possible because the greater damage suffered by the economy of the islands during the pandemic and its condition as an outermost region have been taken into account “.
