The Spanish government’s decision not to send an already delayed budget bill for 2024 to parliament is not expected to impact the disbursement of European Union recovery funds in the country, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Thursday.
But it could have an impact on the Balearic budget.
The Balearic budgets currently have a hole of 619 million euros.
Pedro Sánchez’s announcement means that there will be no budget and this means that last year’s budget will be automatically extended, and this is where the problems begin for the Balearics.
So, on paper, the Balearics will receive the same amount from the government as in 2023 in the form of payments on account, a total of 3.362 million euros, but the government’s budget for this year contains 3.981 million.
This is the forecast that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, communicated to the Vice-President, Antoni Costa, at the end of the year.
Spain has been rolling over last year’s spending plan after the new budget was delayed by an inconclusive election last July and four months of talks for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to renew his term.
“The extended (2023) budget over has sufficient room to carry out the investments and commitments set in the recovery plan itself,” Cuerpo told a news briefing alongside European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni in Madrid.
Cuerpo said there won’t be “any brake” or “constraint” on the implementation of the plan.
The government decided on Wednesday not to present this year’s budget bill and to focus instead on next year’s spending plan, after the Catalonia region called an early election that could throw government support in parliament into disarray.
Spain is one of the main recipients of EU recovery funds, with a total of 163 billion euros earmarked for the country, approximately half in grants and the rest in loans. It has already received 37 billion euros.