- The Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function has announced the next reform of the Law of Bases of the Local Regime to reverse the cut in local autonomy derived from LRSAL and to incorporate a Basic Statute of the Municipalities of Lower Population and of the Municipalities at Risk of Depopulation
- Local entities will have 391.4 million euros, 40% of the total for the Modernization of Public Administrations, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan
- Iceta and Caballero, on the other hand, have signed the agreement for the grant of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service to the FEMP, which includes the PGE 2021
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Service, Miquel Iceta, stressed that his department is “promoting the role of the FEMP in our institutional architecture”, strengthening its participation in sectoral conferences as cooperation bodies also for the local level.
In fact, their participation has been foreseen in the latest constituted sectoral conferences, Agenda 2030, Demographic Challenge, Professional Qualifications and Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (the latter with voice and vote).
“We are working on the reform of the Law of Bases of the Local Regime to reverse the reduction of local autonomy derived from the Law of Rationalization and Sustainability of Local Autonomy (LRSAL) and, in addition, to incorporate a Basic Statute of the Municipalities of Lower Population and of the Municipalities at Risk of Depopulation, regulating the organization and operation of these municipalities,” said Iceta, during his speech by videoconference in the events of the 40th anniversary of the constitution of the FEMP, together with its president, Abel Caballero.
The objectives of harnessing the capacity of local entities, the minister said, are clear: “Promote projects that bring collective value to citizens and improve the living conditions of citizens regardless of the territory in which they reside.”
The reforms that seek to strengthen and deepen local autonomy and adapt it to the demands of the 21st century, are prepared in permanent collaboration with the FEMP because, explained Iceta, “local governments are key to democracy and to the social state and, beyond political colors, local entities have played a decisive role in the modernization and progress of our country since the democratic municipalities were established in 1979.”
In the local entities, the relationship between representative and representative, the core of any democratic system, is strengthened, “and the FEMP gives a voice to 95% of these local governments, to 7,410”, added the minister.
Local entities, key to a solidarity democracy
The FEMP, said Iceta, has been defined as “a school of democratic governance.” In the recovery of the public, local government assumes an essential place and local entities are central institutions for the construction of a democracy of solidarity: “Instruments for equality, guaranteeing rights, are the first link in the chain that forms the welfare state, and the health crisis has once again highlighted the leading role of local authorities as administrations closer to the citizens, an essential role for the proper management of the pandemic, leaving no one behind.”
Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan
Local entities are called to participate in the great challenges ahead, according to Iceta, and the most immediate is to take advantage of the opportunity that the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan brings, for example, to modernize local entities through digitalization, reducing the connectivity gap that many suffer.
For this reason, the minister said, “almost 40% of the total amount to be allocated by the Ministry for the Modernization of Public Administrations will be for local entities, which will represent the execution of 391.4 million euros in three years at the local level.”
Iceta has finished his speech, ensuring that this Government has set out to promote a robust municipalism and this can only be achieved by persevering in our fluid, constructive and close relationship with the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces: “The FEMP has been playing a central role in our country for 40 years and is called to continue to play it in the challenges that we have before us as the administration closest to the citizens.”
AGE-FEMP Convention
On the other hand, the minister Miquel Iceta and the president of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, Abel Caballero, have signed the agreement to make effective the AGE grant to the FEMP, collected in the PGE for 2021.