The Minister of Justice, Local Government and Public Service, José Antonio Nieto, admits that it is “unlikely” that any of the City of Justice projects underway in the community will be completed before the end of the legislature given the magnitude of these projects. actions and their complexity. However, the approval of a judicial infrastructure plan with an investment of 1.5 billion euros and the progress made in the weight of Justice in the Andalusian budget. For the coming years, a goal is set: to reach 1,000 million euros of allocation per year.
“It is likely that we will not be able to complete any City of Justice, because these are the largest facilities that can be built in the field of justice. These are facilities in which the smallest City of Justice, which would be in cities of a hundred thousand inhabitants, such as Marbella, Jerez or Algeciras“, all three of which will start up during this legislature, are facilities of 12 or 13,000 square metres with a high level of complexity,” the councillor explained in an interview with Europa Press.
In any case, he stressed that the judicial infrastructure plan was approved with an investment forecast of 1.5 billion euros until 2030 and with a roadmap of actions for the 85 judicial districts. With actions in smaller municipalities, such as the example of Lucena (Córdoba), inaugurated this week, the councilor affirms that in parallel “we are facing the most important challenge of this ministry, which is the City of Justice of Seville, which involves launching a project with a cost of more than 200 million euros.
“It’s a complex action,” he sums up about the City of Justice of Sevillebefore adding a new project such as, before the end of 2024, “the tender of the City of Justice of Jaén”. This project of Jaén is linked to the activation of the City of Justice of Cádiz and Huelva to explain that they will share the fact that “they will be done through a public works concession, which is a formula rarely used in Spain and complex to manage”, “But it is very useful to be able to guarantee that equipment of such volume, with limited budgetary resources, can be carried out.”
The Minister of Justice continues to list the projects to affirm that “this year we will also launch a call for tenders for the first phase of the City of Justice of Algeciraswe will carry out the preliminary project of the City of Justice of Marbella and, probably, we will also be able to produce the preliminary project of the City of Justice of Jerez.
Budget of 1,000 million
September is the month in which negotiations between the different ministries with the Economy, the Treasury and the European Funds are closed. In this context, Nieto explains that “we have made the first budget registration, which we did in month of June” and this has the commitment of the president and the entire government in areas such as health, education or dependency. “We will lack resources, we would like to have more budget, but we have to do what we have to do, good management, prioritizing projects well,” he emphasizes.
When asked if he would like to reach the symbolic level of a budget of 1,000 million euros, a figure that would mean grow by 10% on the current distribution of this portfolio, recognizes that “I would like to end the legislature there, at this level, but in this budget it is practically impossible.”
“We are working with a restrictive budget, European aid is already coming to an end and we are working on what was collected two years ago, which was a bad year in terms of collection. For my part, it would be illusory to think that we can make this leap, but I believe that we could close Parliament around this figure, around the 1 billion budget, “of three areas that have a lot of value and a lot of power, justice, local administration and public service,” concludes Nieto.
