The ministries of Finance and Ecological Transition will close negotiations with the European Commission (EC) within two weeks to deliver and approve the program of actions in Spain of the Just Transition Fund 2021-2027, endowed with 868 million euros of which almost 263 will be for projects in Asturias. The agreement will come on the horn. If it is not closed before the end of the year, the aid corresponding to the 2023 annuity will be lost, which in the case of Asturias is equivalent to 66 million euros.
Susana Solís, an Asturian MEP from Ciudadanos, had warned on several occasions of the danger of losing European funding to face the energy transition in Asturias if the Government of Spain did not speed up the procedures to approve the Regional Just Transition Plans, whose management it centralized. Solís is up to date with the steps in the processing and, after consulting the parties, from her team it was noted that it is expected that the negotiations between the Government of Spain and the European Commission will be closed in two weeks. “It would be an agreement on the horn taking into account that it would be closed in the week of December 19 to 25, that many countries have already delivered it and that in order not to lose the first annuity, an agreement had to be reached in a timely manner before finish the year,” they said.
To distribute the 868.7 million of the Fund that correspond to Spain, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition took into account the volume of CO2 emissions from each territory (criterion that scored 50%), employment in mining (25%) and the weight of industrial employment over the active population (25%). The Ministry stressed that Asturias will be affected by the closure of seven thermal power plants and four coal mines that affect 1,316 direct jobs and added another 300 Hunosa jobs. He also pointed out that there are industrial sectors that are difficult to decarbonise in which 24,900 people work. Taking these figures into account, Asturias corresponds to 262,850,921 euros from the Just Transition Fund, which represents 30.3% of the total allocated to the Spanish territories most affected by decarbonisation.
Although at first the development of a specific action program for each territory had been considered -with which Asturias would have its own and there would be a more direct dialogue with Europe-, the Ministry for Ecological Transition decided to develop a single common program responding to “principles of administrative effectiveness and efficiency” that have had to be modified due to formal defects and errors to be corrected that have delayed approval
After analyzing the proposals for ideas and projects received in the public participation processes of the so-called Just Transition Agreements; After reviewing the expressions of interest submitted for the Recovery Plan, and taking into account the requests of the autonomous communities, the Ministry for Ecological Transition drew up priority lines of action for each territory. In the case of Asturias, six lines were established.
The first is the ecological transformation of industry, sustainable mobility, the circular economy and energy efficiency, which includes projects for the decarbonisation of industry and transport, circular economy and sustainable mining. The second line is to promote the value chain of renewable energies, self-consumption, energy storage and renewable hydrogen. The third line is to promote SMEs and driving business projects for economic diversification. The fourth is to promote R+D+i and digital transformation. The fifth is environmental rehabilitation, conservation of nature, promotion of heritage and promotion of sustainable tourism. And the sixth to promote social infrastructures and training and qualification initiatives.