The Government of Canary Islands has submitted to the Ministry for Ecological Transition a proposal for legal interpretation that, according to the regional Executive, would allow extending the deadlines for the execution of the extraordinary European funds linked to the Sustainable Energy Strategy and would avoid losing "more than 200 million euros".
The initiative, according to what the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy reported this Tuesday in a note, proposes considering the European objectives met before June 30, 2026 through the granting of aid, as established by community regulations, linking the fulfillment of the program to the legal commitment of expenditure before that date and not exclusively to the material completion of the projects.
The main objective is to extend the execution deadlines for the extraordinary NEXT funds linked to the Sustainable Energy Strategy, with the aim of avoiding the loss of investments already committed in the archipelago.
In this way, the money executed until June 2026 could be financed with 'Next Generation' funds, while the rest of the projects would continue their execution and justification until 2028 through other European instruments with a greater time margin.
To this end, the regional Executive requests the Government of Spain to adapt the royal decree that regulates these funds.
The Director General of Energy, Alberto Hernández, has indicated that the proposal offers “a clear path” to allow the extension of deadlines without violating European regulations and has argued that, from a legal and technical point of view, it is viable to consider the milestones met through the granting of aid.
He added that this interpretation has already been applied in other European calls and responds to the request of beneficiaries who require more time to complete complex energy projects.
The proposal contemplates that the Canary Islands can justify in due time the European objective set for the program (85 megawatts of installed renewable power) before June 30, 2026, returning the amounts not granted.
At the same time, it would allow continuity to ongoing investments that, according to the Ministry, quadruple the initially planned power.
The regional Executive has also recalled that in recent weeks they have asked the Ministry to flexibilize the deadlines given the difficulties in executing projects that require administrative authorizations, construction, and infrastructure installation in a reduced period.
Furthermore, the Canarian Government has advocated using the same extension criterion until 2028 that the Ministry itself has applied to the strategy managed at the state level, they have argued.
The request, the note adds, has the support of the archipelago's energy sector, as well as the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (FECAM) and the Canarian Federation of Islands (FECAI), which have conveyed the need to extend the deadlines to guarantee the full execution of strategic investments without losing European funding.