The government is addressing the EU to activate community aid mechanisms to deal with the consequences derived from Dana in the Levant and southern Spain. Economy Minister Carlos Body announced on Tuesday that the government would send a modification of the Recovery Plan to Brussels, before the end of the year, to channel Next Generation funds from future payments towards reconstruction after the natural disaster .
“What we are going to do, and there are already precedents in other countries, where a readjustment has been made, an addition to the Recovery Plan to reallocate the funds which are not yet used towards these priority objectives of reconstruction of the affected areas”, he explained during a press conference in Brussels, the Minister of the Economy.
As an indication, the Government proposes to present this amendment before the end of the year “with a specific vector for Valencia”. A modification in which it would be necessary to consider “how much money could be reallocated from the funds which have not yet been used and then, draw up a list of these priority projects: what should be the specific modernization agenda for the recovery of Valencia » “.
Body’s visit to Brussels is aimed at multiple meetings with European commissioners to launch European mechanisms to channel funds to Spain. The head of the Economy meets this Tuesday with the Economic Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, the Budget Commissioner, Johannes Hahn and the Secretary General of the European Commission, Ilzee Juhansone.
“We are going to provide an amendment to the Recovery Plan to redirect funds towards strategic projects that go beyond the immediate reaction. This will make it possible to rebuild, to modernize, to have a more resilient and, therefore, more productive economy. in the future,” Body detailed.
“We are moving forward as quickly as possible to be able to put it on the table as quickly as possible,” declared the Minister of the Economy. The changes to the recovery plan refer to the set of steps and objectives that, in this case, would be included to deal with the situation in Valencia. If the government plans to submit the amendment before the end of the year, the Community Executive has two months to give its approval and, thereafter, the evaluation period of the Council of the EU is four weeks.
