Some of the Next Generation European funds have not reached the beneficiaries due to poor design of the aid calls or lack of interest on the part of companies. The general director of European Funds and State Aid of the Generalitat, Aleix Cubells, explained that 14% of the calls for European funds managed by the Generalitat of Catalonia were deserted. It is half that in Spain. Cubells regretted “the lack of success” in the design and explained that it is an “inefficiency” in the management of public resources.
In the case of the calls managed directly by the central government throughout Spain, a higher percentage was void: approximately 30%. The Minister of Economy said that “the data indicate that Catalonia is processing these resources much better than the rest of the State’s territories.”
Of the resources that arrived in Catalonia in the last two years, 68% are already in the hands of the final beneficiaries, whether they are companies, individuals or public administrations. There are 4.3 billion euros out of more than 6.3 billion.
Another way to analyze the figures is to verify that part of the money that the Generalitat must manage has already been mobilized in calls or programs: it was 84%, according to the data presented yesterday in Parliament.
The Secretary of Economic Affairs and European Funds, Miquel Puig, described the deployment of the funds as a process with “bright and dark”.
Catalonia has attracted slightly more resources than its weight in the GDP (19%) or in the population (16%). Of the calls published by the State to which any entity can apply, 20.7% of the total beneficiaries were based in Catalonia.
The direct beneficiaries in the community are close to 46,000, of which 33,000 are individuals. By municipality they have reached 97% of all Catalans.
