The Canary Islands will have an allocation of 1,544 million euros from the ERDF and ESF+ funds, which the Government will be able to manage directly until 2027, plus another 1,242 million euros to invest in the islands.
The approval of these employment and economic growth programs for the archipelago by the European Commission has meant an increase in the resources allocated to the islands of 266 million euros compared to the previous period (2014-2020), which translates into a growth of 20.8%.
The Vice President and Minister of Finance, Budgets and European Affairs, Román Rodríguez, has indicated that this increase is "especially favorable" for the interests of the Canary Islands, both for the volume of funds obtained and for maintaining the co-financing of 85% of the expenditure charged to European funds, as well as for extending the specific OR allocation also to the ESF+.
New contributions and objectives
Specifically, the Commission's decisions stipulate European financing of 1,097 million for the ERDF and 446.5 million euros for the ESF+. In the previous period, these amounts amounted to 997.6 million and 279.6 million euros, respectively.
The main difference lies in the contributions of the ESF+, which include for the first time an allocation for the condition of Outermost Region (OR) of the Canary Islands, which amounts to 165 million euros and merges the previous European Social Fund (ESF) with the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and a part of the European Aid Fund for the Most Deprived (FEAD).
With regard to the ERDF, the political priorities established by the European Union are "Smart digital transition and digital connectivity", "Green transition and urban mobility", "Mobility" and "Social Transformation". These four political objectives are divided into other specific ones, each with its own determined financing.
Thus, Europe will contribute 400 million euros to the first one, which will be specified in R&D&I activities and investments that contribute to an innovative and intelligent economic transformation and to regional connectivity in the field of ICT, as well as to the creation and improvement of the competitiveness of companies.
Within the framework of the green transition objective, the EU will invest 358 million euros in activities and investments that contribute to an economy with zero net carbon emissions, promoting a clean and equitable energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk prevention and management, and sustainable urban mobility.
The programming is completed by the political objectives on mobility, to which 26.7 million are allocated, and on social transformation, for which 311 million euros will be invested.