Pedro Sánchez signs agreement with FEMP to step up role of local authorities in socio-economic reconstruction

The text, approved on Monday by the governing body of FEMP, includes a raft of measures to strengthen the autonomy of local councils and means they will play a very important role in the reconstruction strategy.

By means of this agreement, the government will free up a fund of 5 billion euros for local councils with treasury carry-overs, which may be allocated to long-term care, mobility, housing, sustainable development and promotion of cultural activity programmes. The total provision under the fund will be structured over the course of this year and the next, in response to the request from FEMP to have a sufficiently long implementation period.

On a complementary basis, the agreement includes other relief measures for municipal treasuries, such as not demanding compliance with the spending rule for 2020, the extension of the implementation period of financially sustainable investments, the provision of a fund to offset the deficit in public transport and specific measures to provide local authorities in the worst financial difficulties with liquidity through provincial councils or similar authorities.

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Fernando CalvoThis agreement provides continuity to the measures already adopted, such as the maintenance of the 2020 payments on account for local councils - despite the fall in local collection - which has risen this year to 18.88 billion euros, and the approval, back in March, of the instrument that allows local councils to allocate 300 million euros from their surplus to finance investment costs in social services and primary care provisions and long-term care.

Through this extensive raft of measures, the government reaffirms its decisive commitment to local authorities, and its intention to make them key players in the socio-economic recovery strategy.

Non official translation