Basque and Spanish governments adopt new commitments on the management of European funds
- Urkullu and Calviño have detailed the 5 agreed commitments
The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu met this morning with the First Vice-President and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño. The meeting held at the Ajuria Enea Palace was also attended by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Azpiazu.
After the meeting, both Lehendakari Urkullu and Vice-president Calviño appeared before the media in the Lehendakaritza to give an account of the new commitments adopted for the future. The Lehendakari listed the following commitments:
- AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES' SUSTAINABILITY FUND.
This Fund is endowed with 20 billion euros. The agreement establishes that the DECISION OF THE PROJECTS TO BE FINANCED corresponds to the Basque Government, logically, within the framework of the areas established by Europe. “We thus received a response to the demand for participation in the REGIONAL PERTE.”
- INSTITUTIONAL VISITS TO THE BASQUE COUNTRY BY COMMISSIONERS FROM THE FOLLOWING PERTES:
-ELECTRIC AND CONNECTED VEHICLE
-INDUSTRICAL DECARBONISATION
-AGRI-FOOD, and
-MICROELECTRONICS AND SEMICONDUCTORS.
The Basque Government will organise information sessions with the participation of the sectors involved in each area.
- BASQUE HYDROGEN CORRIDOR.
The Lehendakari has received a written commitment from the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, to Basque projects related to cross-border transport and energy interconnections, as well as showing his commitment to the Basque Country's potential in the field of green hydrogen.
The Basque Country is one of the regions where one of the innovative projects will be located, as well as one of the first axes of the green hydrogen backbone network. A proposal for underground hydrogen storage in the Basque Country will also be analysed.
- CORPORATE TAX ALLOWANCE FUND (R&D) and SOCIAL INCLUSION REFORM FUND (SIF).
It has been agreed that these figures will be analysed between the technical teams of both Governments, in order to guarantee compliance with the Basque Economic Agreement. To this end, a specific technical working group will be set up.
Regarding the dysfunctions detected in the amounts transferred to the Basque Country, the broadband programme in industrial estates has been reprogrammed. The rest of the dysfunctions will be channelled through bilateral relations.
- DEFICITY AND DEBT.
It has been agreed that the loans received from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism will NOT be included in the Deficit of the Autonomous Regions, provided that they are mobilised through financial operations. They will be included in the Debt, meaning that each Autonomous Community will decide whether or not to use them. This is the agreed way to channel the response to the figure demanded by the Basque Government for the “MRR Bond”.
These were the five points agreed at the meeting. However, they also took the opportunity to follow up on the investments received from the different Next Generation EU Funds. In total, 1.62 billion euros have been received. “We will maintain the relationship between the two governments in order to continue to reach a consensus on shared responses to the difficult situation we are experiencing,” the Lehendakari said.
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