The Government of the Canary Islands has executed half of the 630 million euros it has allocated in the European React-EU program and has done so in just under a third of the time planned to exhaust the funds, as explained last Monday by the Canarian vice president and Minister of Budgets Román Rodríguez in a break from the meeting of the Steering Committee for Plans and Projects of the European Next Generation EU Funds.
Rodríguez specified that the Executive has already released 311 million euros from React-EU, whose execution period ends in December 2023, in various projects designed to strengthen the structure of public services (education or health) and to enable direct aid to the sectors most affected by the economic crisis derived from the pandemic.
The vice president assured that the Canary Islands will execute all of those 630 million euros in a timely manner, and that an attempt will be made to do the same with the resources of the other large extraordinary reconstruction fund, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (MRR), whose execution period extends until December 2026.
With respect to the MRR, Rodríguez recalled that so far the Government of Spain has allocated 1,434 million to the Canary Islands of the 15,000 that have been distributed among all the autonomous communities, although these funds have only been received in recent months. Specifically, the Government of the Canary Islands has received state transfers for 524 million euros, with which the execution of projects is already beginning.
"In the case of the MRR, the execution in the Canary Islands and in all the autonomous communities is at a slower pace than the React-EU, since the deadline to develop the projects is also longer, the year 2026, and we have started to receive the funds in these last months," he says.
31% of the investment will be executed in projects related to the Department of Ecological Transition, which is the one that has the most open calls, followed by those related to tourism, industry and commerce (18%); public works, transport and housing (15%); education (10%); social rights (9%); Canarian Employment Service (6%); health (3%); economy, knowledge and employment (3%); justice and security (3%), and finance (2%).
In addition, the vice president clarified that the 1,434 million euros of the MRR do not include the so-called PERTE or the sectoral calls made or planned by the ministries of the Government of Spain, which will also add investment for the Islands, although the autonomous Executive does not know the exact amounts.
During the meeting of the Steering Committee for Plans and Projects, the specific modification of the Strategic Planning Instruments (IPE) of the Ministries of Economy, Knowledge and Employment; Education, Universities, Culture and Sports; and Social Rights was also addressed. Similarly, various aspects of the intervention function of the funds were analyzed and the corporate image manual of the Next Generation EU was addressed.
