Subject: Mr Marc Lamaître’s statements in Parliament concerning Spain’s administrative management of structural and cohesion funds
On 15 November 2021, Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) held an exchange of views with Mr Marc Lemaître, Director-General of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO).
During the exchange of views, Mr Lemaître said that some Member States, and most notably Spain, have focused all their administrative attention on the Recovery and Resilience Facility funds and have disregarded the traditional cohesion funds1.
In particular, Mr Lemaître said that Spain ‘pushed back in a very saddening way the submission of the partnership agreement and the submission of programmes [under the structural and cohesion funds] [...] nearly beyond understanding’ and that ‘Spain has shown that it cannot do two things at the same time’.
1. Has the Commission ever directly communicated to the Spanish Government the dissatisfaction with the administrative management of cohesion funds that it expressed in Parliament?
2. What is the risk that Spain will not receive part of the conventional cohesion funds to which it could have access for the 2021-2027 period if its administrative management continues as it has done to date?
3. What is the current status of Spain’s formal procedures to receive these funds, and which Member States have already completed these procedures?
1 https://www.elmundo.es/economia/2021/11/21/619a4018fc6c832a6e8b45f1.html
Joint answer given by Ms Ferreira on behalf of the European Commission (7 March 2022)
1. As a reaction to the pandemic crisis, the 2021-2027 EU budget was substantially reinforced with the Next Generation EU initiative, totalling an unprecedented EUR 1.8 trillion of funding to support the recovery and long-term priorities. This amount was channelled to existing and new instruments, many of which require the preparation of programmes and plans.
2. Spain is the main beneficiary of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) (2) and Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU) (3). Spain reprogrammed cohesion resources to fight the pandemic (4), (5) under the Coronavirus Response and Investment Initiatives, programmed EUR 14.5 billion from REACT-EU and prepared Spain’s RRF Plan, all at the same time. The Commission is aware that, as a result, the 2021-2027 cohesion policy programming was slowed down.
While the delays are general, several Member States are quite advanced with the preparations (6).
3. From mid 2018 (7), the Commission organised several events in Madrid together with the Spanish authorities to present it, as well as its position on the priority investments for cohesion policy in Spain. Moreover, the 2021-2027 preparation was on the agenda of several meetings between the Commission services and Spanish authorities. The Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms has also recalled the need to reach a rapid agreement on the strategy for 2021-2027. (8)
4. All programmes for 2021-2027 have to be adopted in 2022 to avoid losing the 2022 allocation (9). A submission of programmes late in 2022 could put at risk their quality or even their adoption by the end of 2022. However, discussions on the Partnership Agreement and programmes have meanwhile gained speed. Spain has presented a roadmap where the official submission of these is planned for June-July 2022.
⋅2∙ Recovery and Resilience Facility | European Commission (europa.eu)
⋅3∙ REACT-EU — Regional Policy — European Commission (europa.eu)
⋅4∙ Cohesion Policy and EU Solidarity Fund contribute to the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative — Regional Policy — European Commission (europa.eu)
⋅5∙ Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus: New actions to mobilise essential investments and resources — Regional Policy — European Commission
(europa.eu)
⋅6∙ No Member State has yet completed the 2021-2027 programming process. The Commission has so far adopted only one Partnership Agreement.
⋅7∙ These meetings took place after the publication of the Commission proposal for the new cohesion policy framework on 28 May and 3 June 2018.
⋅8∙ Letter of 11 November 2020 — Ares(2020)6606776.
⋅9∙ Article 7 of the Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 on the MFF for 2021-2027 provides for an exception from the budgetary rules only for the year 2021,
of which commitments can be transferred to the following years of the MFF. The total amount of the funds allocated for Spain for the year 2022 needs to be committed for the programmes by the end of the year, otherwise the amount not committed may be lost. Article 9 of the Financial Regulation (EU, Euratom 2018/1046) states that appropriations entered in the budget shall be authorised for a financial year which shall run from 1 January to 31 December. Furthermore, Article 12.1 of the Financial Regulation sets out that appropriations which have not been used by the end of the financial year for which they were entered shall be cancelled.