Madrid City Hall’s budgetary collaboration with United Nations entities that provide humanitarian aid changed with Almeida’s second term. The draft budget for the year 2025 eliminates all direct subsidies to UN entities, which were common during his first mandate, to grant them through a mechanism that adapts to the needs of the moment.
The International Relations item decreases by 5.6% due to the reallocation of these amounts to direct concessions. The budget proposal indicates that the withdrawal of the first allocation to the UN is due to “the decision to reorient municipal international relations and, for this purpose, it was decided not to continue the nominal grants that were granted to different agencies “, he explains. the consistory in its draft Budget for 2025.
In the area of social policies, family and equality, promotion and international cooperation, they specify to Somos Madrid that the aid they grant in 2025 will be granted directly and not through nominal grants . “Chapter 4 of the budget contains items intended for aid to foundations and non-profit entities, including humanitarian aid,” says a spokesperson.
The system has already changed this year and one example is the 250,000 euros granted to Unicef by the municipality for the distribution of cash financial assistance to vulnerable households in the south and east of Ukraine. Over the previous two years, aid amounting to 800,000 euros was paid to the same organization through the aforementioned mechanism.
The Municipal Council explains that subsidies are granted with this new dynamic to be able to deal with humanitarian crises that are impossible to predict when drawing up budgets. “These are direct concessions due to the nature of the crises. They are allocated according to the needs that arise, it is the most suitable instrument for channeling aid and the one provided for in the regulations for this reality.
“Madrid is a city of solidarity and this is reflected in its 2025 budgets. They maintain the 2024 budget allocated to international cooperation, close to 9 million euros, and includes grants for humanitarian aid, supporting projects for an amount close to 1.5 million euros. » they add.
This change in mechanism had not been noticed by the PSOE, which in a previous version of this information denounced the disappearance of this aid to UN organizations and assured that it was not in conformity with the Strategic Subsidies Plan of Madrid City Hall, valid until 2027. , and which provides for an expenditure of 500,000 euros per year during the four years of validity.
In the area of social policies, it is indicated that the humanitarian aid actions that we finance are decided within the framework of the “Humanitarian Action Strategy 2019-2026” of Spanish Cooperation and the strategic cooperation framework of the City Hall of Madrid 2022-2025.
