The 45 municipalities agree on measures for the reactivation of the Region of Murcia with far-reaching social and economic measures.
These include the reactivation of the Works and Services Plan, a Social Plan Against Poverty and the release of the surplus generated by the municipalities.
The Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia (FMRM) held its Executive Committee yesterday afternoon to establish the bases of a programme of economic and social reactivation of the region in which the coordination of the Town Councils with the financial aid of the Central Government and the CARM is vital.
This document, divided into three large blocks and prepared by the FMRM board of directors headed by its president María Dolores Muñoz and the general secretary Manuel Pato, brings together very important measures and initiatives to overcome the crisis caused by COVID-19, in which local politics is the main driving force to achieve this, since it is the administration closest to the citizen that has shown in the State of Alarm to be alongside the citizens fighting with its own measures, aid and actions.
These sections respond to key areas: Institutional Financing and Support Measures, Social Services and Local Economy. Within these blocks, there are major proposals for the reactivation of the Works and Services Plan (POS) to boost the local economy, since this project generates jobs and subcontracting of services, in addition to helping to improve the situation of the municipalities.
On the other hand, the document indicates the request by the municipalities for the release of the surplus generated by the local administrations, with these being the ones to decide their expenditure, and that those municipalities that do not have a surplus or cannot use it, be released from compliance with the strict spending rule so that they can benefit from these reactivation measures.
In addition, they determine the need to enable an annual Local Unconditional Fund, so that even municipalities that do not have resources or a surplus can use it for social expenses, housing aid, mortgages, rent, food, etc. Another proposal is the promotion of a Social Plan Against Poverty, and to increase the coverage of basic income and special attention to child poverty,
A fundamental aspect that local administrations are considering, and that many of them have already begun to develop, is a package of measures related to the implementation of a Plan for the reactivation and promotion of local commerce, with the promotion of local commerce and hospitality, creating lines of financing and credits at zero cost for their modernization.
President María Dolores Muñoz has declared that “it is time to work together on an economic and social project for the region, which will manage to alleviate the socio-economic cost that we must pay for the pandemic. To this end, the Federation of Municipalities proposes launching a project to reactivate our productive fabric and social recovery from a great Regional Pact, between all political, economic and social forces and the participation of all institutions, Europe, the State, CARM and city councils, to achieve our recovery at a lower cost and thus, strengthen the economic reactivation of our business fabric, without leaving any sector or social group behind.”
Muñoz insists on the idea of creating this coordination body between the CARM and the City Councils through the FMRM, which he has been demanding for weeks, and explains that “the COVID-19 crisis has revealed the poor coordination between the CARM and the City Councils, since it has taken us more than 15 days to agree on working methods and measures for the management of this crisis, so let us learn from the mistakes made so that the de-escalation is as effective and responsible as possible on the part of the administrations. For this reason, we once again emphasize the urgent need to create this coordination team.”
For his part, the Secretary General of FMRM Manuel Pato says that “we must not forget that our health system, which has suffered the weight of this crisis, is affected and it is time to rebuild it humanly and economically. It is our obligation to strengthen the Social Welfare State of our region, and in the short term we will have to work to protect our own system before this same pandemic and another serious crisis are repeated.” Because according to the Secretary General, “due to the accumulation of many factors, Murcia has been the least affected by coronavirus, but the weakness of our Social Services has been exposed, with programs that have many edges. If there is a resurgence, we will be caught without the possibility of helping the most vulnerable people.”
To conclude, the FMRM assures that “aware of the mission as an administration close to the citizens, we have been demanding from the FMRM (and FEMP) for years both to the various governments of Spain or to the CARM adequate financing for our competences and services, but local financing has not been touched in the last three decades, and the participation in the income of the CARM has not gone beyond being a claim never attended to, therefore, and without this, the town councils will not be able to continue playing the role that these administrations as well as the citizens ask of us on a daily basis, with the absorption, in addition, of competences for which we are not responsible”.
