La Rioja will receive 1,406 million euros in 2025 from the autonomous financing system, corresponding to the 1,360 million euros of account deliveries and the liquidation of the financial year 2023.
The delegate of the Government in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz Nalda, offered this morning an informative breakfast for the beginning of the political course and with the aim of contextualizing the commitment of the Government of Spain with this region.
Arraiz Nalda has highlighted the historic amount of state funding that will be allocated to La Rioja in account deliveries, which represents an increase of 105 million euros, 8.3% more than in 2024.
In this regard, he has said that the regional financing model has already been defined, but in this case, there has been a considerable increase in the payments on account, a substantial part of the regional financing system and which confirms the commitment of the Government of Spain to the sufficiency of resources for all territories “so that they can provide, with the highest quality, the public services for which they are responsible”.
Making a comparison of legislatures, during the stage of the governments led by Pedro Sánchez, La Rioja will have had resources worth 8,418 million. This figure includes, in addition to regular funding, the distribution of extraordinary funds that the central executive mobilized to counteract the effects of COVID-19.
This means that the Autonomous Community will have had funding 41.5% higher than that received in the mandate of Mariano Rajoy, that is, 2,470 million more.
To this significant amount, the delegate has specified that it is necessary to add other items not included, such as direct investments of the State in the territories, such as, for example, the South Round and the A-12; the distribution of funds agreed in the sectoral conferences; agreements signed directly by the General Administration of the State and each autonomous government, such as 17.8 million euros to deepen the change in the care model of the Dependency System through the improvement of its financing; or items from European funds.
In this regard, it has highlighted that, as detailed in the first Complying report of the year that refers to the commitments of the State with La Rioja until July 2024, 327.5 million euros have been allocated to the autonomous community for the deployment of investments of the Recovery Plan in its fields of competences: housing, sustainable mobility, promotion of renewables, education and professional training, inclusion and social services, among others.
Another 179 million euros of the Plan have been resolved by the General Administration of the State in La Rioja, such as the 12.8 million euros of the Digital Kit program, which has had 2,739 beneficiaries. In addition, 64.6 million euros have been allocated in REACTIVE EU funds, aimed at strengthening the Welfare State and reactivating the economy after the impact of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, fundamentally, in the field of education, health and social services.
Fiscal responsibility
In addition, Arraiz Nalda has pointed out that the Government of La Rioja contradicts itself by setting as inalienable objectives in the regional budgets for next year to continue reducing taxes and improving the quality of public services.
For her part, the delegate has insisted on the importance of fiscal co-responsibility because it is a contradiction that “the regional government demands more funding from the State, but at the same time already applies tax reductions, to which can be added others that may be announced in the Debate of the Region. All this, as they have already said, to try to make our community the one with the least taxes paid,” he said.
As an example of the commitment to public services, specifically to health, Arraiz Nalda has confronted the decisions taken by the Government of Spain and that of La Rioja. Thus, through the INVEAT Health Plan, La Rioja has received 8.7 million euros from the central executive for high-tech equipment in our hospitals and another 8.1 million euros from the agreements approved in the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, since December 2023, for different plans, such as the Personalized Digital Care Plan, for the improvement of health care for patients with rare diseases and ALS, the Mental Health Plan or the Oral Health Plan.
Another example would also be the 4.5 million euros of state funding for the expansion of the health center of Calsalvo, which has been obtained following a request from the previous Government of La Rioja, through an investment line for the improvement of primary care.
On the contrary, the delegate criticized that the Government of La Rioja of the PP has decided to opt for the model of privatizing health services, specifically, bidding for 26.2 million euros for the privatization of surgical interventions of six specialties until 2028.
“Faced with the public investment of the Spanish Government of Pedro Sánchez of our health model, we are faced with the privatization of PP services,” he added.
Infrastructure
With regard to the infrastructure of La Rioja, it has concretized the determined impulse that is taking place in recent years. The delegate cited, among others, the 58.7 million euros awarded for the execution of the works of the new Rincon de Soto Variant and the definitive approval of the informative study of the high-speed railway section between Castejón and Logroño, as well as its public information and audience record, which will mean a significant reduction in travel times.
He also recalled that 1.7 million euros were awarded for the drafting of the 12.7 km conditioning project of the N-232 as road 2+1, in the stretch between the end of the variant of El Villar de Arnedo and Arrúbal, and whose estimated budget for the execution of the works amounts to 40 million euros.
In addition, both the Southern Round and the A-12, in its Riojan stretch, advance in time. In particular, the total execution of the works of the Southern Round amounts to 64.8%, with 86.2 million euros over the 133 million euros of the current budget, and on the A-12, between Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Villamayor del Río, stands at 64.9% with 54.6 million euros over the 84.2 million euros of the total budget.
More commitments to La Rioja
Regarding agriculture and livestock, “the Government of Spain has firmly committed itself to the Rioja primary sector with facts and not just words”.
Thus, he recalled the more than 14 million euros for 3,604 hectares that will be allocated from state funds to finance aid for the green harvest in this year’s call, compared to the 4 million for this same purpose of the regional executive.
In addition, extraordinary aid has been allocated both for the drought, from which 1,367 beneficiaries have benefited with 1.7 million euros, and to alleviate the consequences of the war in Ukraine, with another 8.7 million euros that have targeted 5,947 Rioja farmers and livestock farmers.
Also linked to the rural world, and “with great positive impact in favor of the reconciliation of mothers and fathers”, the delegate has valued the Co-responsible program, financed by the Government of Spain, through the Ministry of Equality, and whose objective is to start the path towards guaranteeing care as a right in Spain from the perspective of equality between women and men.
Specifically, the direct and exclusive financing of the Government of Spain for the development of this plan in La Rioja is 3.1 million euros in 2024.
“The Government of Spain does and will continue to bet on equality policies, while others eliminate the Ministry that develops these policies, as has happened in our autonomous community,” he denounced.
Citizen Security
Before concluding the informative breakfast, the delegate referred to the reinforcement of the National Police and Civil Guard personnel, reaching the figure of almost 300 national police in La Rioja, specifically, 298 personnel, and 894 civil guards, a number of agents that had never been reached in La Rioja.