The Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment of the Community of Madrid, Rocío Albert, has warned that the Government is "on its way to having to return billions" of euros from European funds that "it has not been able to execute" or because what it executes "it does with a trick by dedicating it to what it should not dedicate it to".
Albert made this accusation during a question in the control session of the Plenary of the Assembly, where she defended that the Community of Madrid is an "example of good management" of these resources, with around 90% already executed and allocated to "housing, training, digitalization...".
In contrast, she assured that the central Executive has "dedicated at least 10.8 billion euros to pay current expenses, to pay pensions, to pay the Minimum Vital Income and even to pay contributions to the Correos company".
The minister also highlighted the doubts raised by two German MEPs following the Court of Auditors' report on the general state accounts for 2024, which suggests that part of these funds would have been used to pay pensions. In response, the European Commission has reiterated that budgetary transfers linked to the use of recovery funds for pensions in Spain "do not question the legal use" of community aid.
Given this scenario, Albert maintained that the Court of Auditors has "questioned the legal argument" of said operation and stressed that if there is a letter from the European Commission "saying that it could be done" it is "because there was a problem".
"We will see if it is legal or not. But it is certainly not acceptable. No letter changes that. Your Honor, European funds were not created to cover the holes of a government that is incapable of having a budget and paying pensions," the Madrid minister concluded.