Joint communiqué from thirty municipalities rejecting the local funding agreement

A virtual meeting of mayors from thirty municipalities which took place this morning concluded with a joint communiqué where the participants expressed their rejection of the local finance agreement reached between the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and the Spanish Ministry of Finance, in the framework of the management of the economic and health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

01/09/2020 15:30 h

Ajuntament de Barcelona

During a virtual meeting attended by the mayors of Alicante, Almeria, Badajoz, Badalona, Barcelona, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Lleida, Madrid, Malaga, Marbella, Murcia, Ourense, Oviedo, Palencia, Pamplona, Pontevedra, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Reus, Salamanca, Santander, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Telde, Terrassa, Teruel, Torrelavega and Valencia.

The joint communiqué expresses the thirty municipalities’ rejection of the agreement between the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) and the Spanish Ministry of Finance, as it violates the principle of equality between municipalities and citizens, and contains a call for dialogue to start negotiations based on fair and solidarity criteria for distributing funds.

The full communiqué includes ten points, agreed to by the mayors and highlighting how the agreement between the FEMP and the Ministry of Finance does not have a large-enough majority to be validated in the Spanish Parliament and calling on the Spanish government to draft a completely new document that includes the measures enjoying broad political support:

  • An unconditional fund of 5,000 million euros for all local authorities.
  • A specific fund of 1,000 million euros for funding municipal transport.
  • Extension of the deadline for sustainable financial investments.
  • Revocation of the expenditure rule and the deficit and stability concept at least for the years 2020 and 2021.

 

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