Exceptions in the confrontation between the Government and the Junta of Andalusia: Doñana, the drought, the Metro and the Space Agency

In the relationship between the Spanish Government and the Junta de Andalucía over the last five years, there is a date marked in red: November 27, 2023. It was then that the Doñana Agreement was signed, a pact that the Andalusian Government described as “historic” and that involved a global investment of 1.4 billion euros divided between the two administrations in the natural space and its surroundings and the withdrawal of the bill to expand irrigation. This was a great step forward between the two institutions and one of the few aspects included in the lists of demands that have been materialized. Months after this signing, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Junta de Andalucía have also advanced in another fundamental line that was present at the meetings between Juanma Moreno and Pedro Sánchez: the fight against drought. Large infrastructures, such as the desalination plants of the Costa del Sol and Almería or the dam d’Alcolea, have been delayed for years, more than a decade. However, there is harmony between the two governments and progress in recent months, as evidenced by the meeting that the Secretary of State for Water and Councilor Ramón Fernández Pacheco held in September. There were also specific projects on the meeting table for which luck was unequal. Juanma Moreno said that the Space Agency and the Artificial Intelligence Agency were in Andalusia. In the end, only one of the two was possible thanks to a coordinated project between the Seville City Council and the Junta. They are the same actors who played in another pact, present on the table and which has been the subject of disagreements for years: the financing of the expansion of the metro. More generally, and probably regardless of whether or not it was on the agenda of Andalusian demands, there have been common images in these years in the unblocking of the Abengoa crisis (present in the 2022 document), in the investments in the naval sector of the Bay of Cádiz by Navantia or in the non-application of new tolls on Andalusian motorways, an express request by Moreno in the face of the existing threat that ultimately did not materialize. In terms of regional financing and European funds, the gaps and differences are evident and undeniable in recent years. However, the increase in collection and therefore in the funds dedicated to the autonomous system, which reached a record of 154.467 million euros in 2024, has allowed the State to distribute more funds to Andalusia until reaching 27.937 million. However, this figure still does not reach the level that corresponds to the community on the basis of its adjusted population. In the European funds, neither the distribution nor the criteria satisfy the Council, but nevertheless 3.612 million euros have been received from Next Generation until 2023.

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