Thursday, March 28

Brussels once again amends Casado’s PP and reminds him that Spain does not have a notice for excessive public spending

Pablo Casado is in Brussels to continue with the campaign of suspicions about the management of European funds in Spain. Although he has recognized that the same thing he is asking for is what the European institutions are already doing. This Wednesday several mayors of the PP go to Brussels, among them that of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida. So that? To sow suspicion about European funds, just as the president of the Andalusian Government did a week ago, also in Brussels, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla.

And in that endless race, this Monday, shortly after Casado met with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, MEP Isabel Benjumea, returned to the offensive against the Government in the Economic Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.

Two weeks ago the same interlocutors, Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, told him that Spain was receiving the money “because it meets the objectives” set to receive this money -Brussels has already disbursed 19,000 million euros, the country with the most has received so far, from the recovery funds.

And this Wednesday, to his questions about the debt and the deficit, as well as about Spanish current spending and its hypothetical link with European funds, both Dombrovskis and Gentiloni have corrected him.

“They place Spain as one of the countries with the highest deficit rate in the EU, with 7.3”, said Benjumea, “What are the EC’s recommendations on spending control for countries with high levels of of debt, how to get these countries to mitigate debt risks while not slowing down growth? What measures of the fiscal surveillance program do you plan to use to prevent misuse of funds and that investments do not finance current spending?

The economic vice president of the European Commission, Dombrovskis, has responded: “When we assess the draft budget plans of the States, we must distinguish between countries with low debt or very high debt, such as Spain, from which we ask for more prudent fiscal policies” . He then added about spending: “When we talk about fiscal stimuli, we say that it is important to control current spending. And several countries, such as Italy, Lithuania and Latvia, have received a warning, but Spain was not among those countries with that notification and call for caution”.

Indeed, the draft Spanish budget was approved by Brussels not only without warning about current spending, but also pointing out that it was one of the few contractive budgets. That is, designed to reduce the deficit and debt during this year. This is how Brussels wrote it: “In 2022, based on the Commission’s forecast and including the information included in the Draft Budget Plan for Spain, it is expected that the fiscal orientation, including the boost provided by the recovery funds, will be contractionary “.

Dombrovskis has continued: “The recovery fund does not finance current spending, or it does so in a very limited way, the mechanism finances investment, which is what is reflected in the Spanish plan.”

The Commissioner for Finance, Paolo Gentiloni, has elaborated: “Indeed, we have addressed excessive spending in a number of countries, but not Spain, in this case, trying to address permanent excessive spending. Going forward, within the fund of recovery and resilience, we are going to study a series of important reforms that the Spanish plan is already dealing with, such as the labor market and pensions, which are important steps. Of course, the European Commission will study the impact of these reforms from the point of view of sustainability. For the moment we have supported the decisions taken and we have not made specific calls for caution for Spain regarding excessive public spending”.




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