Manuel Pato, general secretary of the Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia, attended a few days ago the meeting of the Secretariat of the Territorial Council of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), made up of the general secretaries of the Territorial Federations of Municipalities, on the island of La Palma to discuss, among other issues of interest to the territorial authorities, the calls for the NextGeneration Recovery Funds.
The meeting was held at the headquarters of FECAM (Canarian Federation of Municipalities), and was chaired by the general secretary of FEMP, Carlos Daniel Casares; and its hosts were the president of FECAM and mayor of Candelaria, María Concepción Brito; and the general secretary of the Canary Federation, Vicente Rodríguez.
This meeting of the Territorial Secretariat of the FEMP, which is held at certain intervals, has been marked by a working table on the NextGeneration Funds from the European Union and the execution of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Government of Spain aimed at the technical staff of the Territorial Federations of Municipalities, something that is of great importance for the town councils, and that therefore the federations must know first-hand to assist local entities in the development of these projects.
In the case of the Region of Murcia, these funds have been the subject of numerous debates and meetings in the FMRM, since the councillors of the municipalities in the region are very interested in the NextGeneration and they continue to be a source of uncertainty after many months. Due to this great interest, the FMRM, through its president María Dolores Muñoz and SG Manuel Pato himself, requested more than a year ago, in anticipation of the arrival of this money from Europe, that the Federation of Municipalities be the intermediary between the CARM and the Town Councils, as well as being part of a coordination table, to attend to all the municipal needs that arose from this and to accompany the town councils in the process.
Pato says in this regard that, "I regret that this request has not been heard, since the role of the municipal federations is to help and advise the town councils in everything that may arise, and more so in matters of this scope."
To conclude, and referring to the meeting of the secretariat, the FMRM SG comments that, “it has been a pleasant experience to be able to share, after so much time in person, issues that concern all the territorial bodies, and at the same time to learn about the impact in each territory of the latest legal developments, such as the Labour Reform or the recent Waste Law, among others. All this is vital so that we can improve our role with local entities.”
He also explains that “visiting La Palma and seeing what happened first-hand was shocking, and a demonstration by the FEMP of the value of the support given by institutions and organisations to the Canarian people.”
For their part, sources from FECAM expressed their gratitude for all the help, solidarity and support shown by each territory to them in the emergency during the eruption of the volcano.
