The Vice-President and Minister of Economy and Finance of the Catalan Government, Pere Aragonès, this Wednesday called for responsibility in the management of European Next Generation EU funds "to achieve the economic and social transformation that the country needs". An instrument that the European Commission approved last July with a budget of €750 billion for all the countries of the European Union, "the largest disbursement in Europe since the Marshall Plan" recalled Aragonès.

Aragonès made these statements before the Permanent Deputation of the Parliament during the presentation of the Decree Law 5/2021 approving urgent measures for the implementation and management of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (MRR) and the REACT- EU Fund (FR-EU) for the Administration of the Catalan Government and its public sector. "European Next Generation EU funds are an opportunity, the administration must be prepared, and this Decree Law works in this direction", he said.

The main objective of the Decree Law that was validated on Wednesday by the Parliament is to adapt the regulations to prepare and train the Catalan administration and its public sector entities, including the university, to guarantee an efficient and transparent management of the European funds Next Generation EU, and provide it with the resources and procedures necessary to achieve it. "In other words: facilitate, simplify and streamline administrative procedures to ensure that the maximum number of projects can benefit from European funding through these funds," said Aragonès.

During his speech, Aragonès also announced that since the beginning of the pandemic, the Government has already allocated a total of €2,969 million -including guarantees, loans, and tax exemptions- to the economic sectors affected by the effects of COVID-19. "Under the absolute priority of preserving life, there is the need to preserve the productive fabric" he said.