The municipal councilor of Facenda, Miguel Corgos, demanded that, in the new European multiannual financial framework, “the weight that regional governments currently have in the definition and management” of the measures financed with the cohesion fundwhile refusing to move towards greater recentralization.
In his speech during a debate on the future of cohesion policy which took place in the European Parliament, Corgos claimed this request for Galicia, among other regions, because “it is obvious that a large part of the development of the community over the last 35 years is linked to the European funds received” , he said.
The head of the Economy of the Xunta defends that it is “essential” to have a stronger and more modernized cohesion policy to strengthen the European growth model and build an inclusive Union. Although he bets on a simplification of financing instrumentswarns of fears that these changes will lead to greater centralization, going against the principle of subsidiarity enshrined in the EU Treaty.
Corgos insists that “Galicia is opposed to a model that advocates centralization similar to that used to implement the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism whose design, from a national perspective without consensus with the communities, shows a certain ineffectiveness, endangering the achievement of certain milestones and objectives”, warns the head of Facenda Gallego.
For this reason, he opts for a model of shared management and multilevel governance in which regions participate autonomously in the design and management of policies aimed at improving economic, social and territorial convergence, in which different needs are taken into account.
Results
In this way, Corgos made a historical assessment in which he recalled that since 1986 and until the end of this decade the Galician Government will have succeeded more than 32 billion euros in community aid65% corresponding to structural cohesion funds. “And with 100% execution within the financial frameworks already concluded,” he explains.
To measure the impact of these funds in Galicia, the advisor used different data, such as that Galicia was the second autonomy which has increased the most in GDP per capita in Spain, 3.4% on annual average, between 2000 and 2022.
Furthermore, the convergence of GDP per capita improved by almost 15 points (from 77.6% to 92%). THE unemployment rate It fell steadily to 9.5%, two points less than the Spanish average. And the employment rate of the population aged 20 to 64 has increased by almost five points since 2009, to reach 70.6%.
He specifies that the people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The school dropout rate is 9.1%, lower than the European average and three times lower than in 2000.
