PRESS RELEASE
5/03/2021
The FMRM European Commission has approved a proposal to urge the Government of Spain and the CARM to create a joint participation body to help municipalities benefiting from the European Funds belonging to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
This morning, the FMRM held its Commission for Europe and External Relations, chaired by the Mayor of Mula, Juan Jesús Moreno, and the Vice-President and Mayor of Albudeite, José Luis Casales, and the majority of its members being councillors from municipalities in the region.
The Secretary General of the Federation, Manuel Pato, introduced the main topic of the agenda, which was to report on the European Funds for the implementation of Next Generation projects, with the investment destined for Spain amounting to 140.000 million euros, of which for this year, it is estimated that the autonomous communities and local administrations will be responsible for 10.793 and 1.483 million euros respectively.
Pato said that "we must move towards a new paradigm for the use of European funds, modifying the way we work with these funds, so that administrations must change the concept and the way of working to achieve the objectives set by Europe."
The Government of Spain will maintain a direct relationship with municipalities with more than 50.000 inhabitants in the distribution of funds. The delivery of funds to municipalities with less than 50.000 inhabitants will be managed by the provincial councils, which is why the Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia believes it is essential that this entity, which brings together all the municipalities and has real knowledge of their needs, becomes one of the main actors in a coordinating body for the management of these funds and helps the municipalities to manage and implement the projects, since the region does not have a Provincial Council.
For his part, the president of the commission, Juan Jesús Moreno, explained that “the region of Murcia is uniprovincial and, as it does not have a Provincial Council, the Federation of Municipalities, as the entity that defends and brings together the 45 municipalities, must lead a joint body together with the CARM so that municipalities with less than 50.000 inhabitants can opt for funds to carry out Next Generation projects”.
Proposal approved unanimously
For this reason, the commission has approved a proposal to urge the Government of Spain and the Autonomous Community to create a body for decision-making, coordination, assessment and evaluation of everything related to municipal initiative projects that may be financed with the aforementioned European Funds, of which the FMRM forms part.
Joaquín Hernández, mayor of Lorquí and member of the FEMP Governing Board, has participated in this meeting, and has expressed the importance of the administrations listening to the FMRM since, as he said, “it is important to vindicate the role of small and medium-sized municipalities, and for this, the FMRM and the FRMP are instruments that help to be on equal terms to obtain these funds”.
Projects eligible for funding
There are many lines of aid that the central government ministries have on the table, but the vast majority focus on financing projects that help meet the Sustainable Development Goals, Urban Agenda, or adaptation to Climate Change. The European Commission requires that 37% of the funds must be aligned with projects that seek to make us a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
The initiatives arising from Next Generation aim to become a reality in the medium term, so they will be implemented quickly, as 100% of the funds are expected to be committed in 2023, and executed by the end of 2026.
