The EU criticizes Sánchez for concealing the destination of 40 billion in European funds

The president of the Committee on Budgetary Control of the European Parliament (CONT) criticized the lack of transparency and the scarce information provided by the Socialist government of Pedro Sánchez during the presentation of the report on the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM).

"As of today, we don't know where all the European funds received by Spain have gone," she explained. This way, the European auditors responsible for overseeing the use of the recovery funds allocated to Spain still do not know the destination of the first 40,000 million granted.

The conclusions of the report were forceful: "The last time I asked about the money was three weeks ago. Today I still haven't received any data," denounced German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, who strongly criticized the Spanish government for its poor management.

"I can't understand how the Spanish Administration doesn't have interoperable IT tools to facilitate aggregated searches that inform citizens and institutions about the destination of each of those funds," she pointed out.

The destination of the funds

The Committee also warned that the distribution of these funds has been carried out without rigorous control, suggesting that part of the money is not being used in accordance with the objectives for which it was granted. Allocations were identified for current and operating expenses, which contradicts the principles of the program.

In this regard, Monika Hohlmeier was emphatic in stressing that "all funds must be allocated to projects with European added value, not to items in the ordinary national budget."

The German MEP also pointed out that the excessive Spanish bureaucratic burden is hindering the implementation of the Recovery Plan—"an issue that is also observed in other EU countries," she noted—.

She also denounced the lack of clarity and the administrative errors committed by the autonomous communities. As an example, she mentioned the inefficiency of the Coffee system, which has forced many regions to submit information by email, in Excel spreadsheets or other formats, due to the incompatibility between the Ministry of Economy's platform and those of other ministerial bodies.

The Committee anticipated that they will again require Spain to provide the necessary data to clarify the destination of the funds, with the aim of "controlling every cent delivered. Everything must be audited in detail."

They also expressed doubts about whether that money is really reaching those who need it: "We don't know if it is reaching the companies and families who need it." They also emphasized that most of the resources remain under the control of public administrations.

The conclusions of this Committee on Budgetary Control almost completely coincide with those of the Spanish Court of Auditors, which in its most recent audit report on the regional management of the Recovery Plan had already warned about the lack of transparency on the part of Pedro Sánchez's government in the management of European funds.

The Court also pointed out deficiencies in the implementation of reforms and in the execution of investments that must be carried out by both the regions and the autonomous cities, and recommended introducing changes that would allow for more agile and efficient management of the projects financed with these funds.