Brussels (EFE) launched by the Spanish authorities.
The work of this group of ten MEPs coincides with the approval of the European Commission for the third disbursement to Spain, another 6,000 million that will be transferred within a month when they are also approved by the rest of the Member States and will rise to 37,000 million the funds already transferred.
The mission is headed by the president of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, Monika Hohlmeier, of the European People’s Party, who has been especially incisive with the information available on the spending of the Spanish plan and recently sent a letter riddled with criticism of the Spanish Vice President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño.

The German is accompanied by the Portuguese Jose Manuel Fernandes, also from the EPP, the Social Democrats Isabel García (PSOE) and the Italian Caterina Chinnici, and the VOX MEP Jorge Buxadé. The ‘popular’ Isabel Benjumea, the socialist Eider Gardiazábal, the Citizens MEPs Eva Poptcheva and Susana Solís, and Ernest Urtasun (Catalunya en Comú) participate as “accompaniers”.
It is, in any case, a routine monitoring mission that the European Parliament will repeat in other countries to assess the implementation of their national reform and investment strategies.
On Wednesday, at a press conference scheduled for noon, they will share a series of conclusions that, however, will not be binding for future disbursements, since the analysis and approval of each of them correspond to the European Commission and the Member states.
exchange of letters
The visit also has as a backdrop the accusations made by Hohlmeier in a letter in response to a previous letter sent by Calviño and also the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero. In it, the German reproached the Spanish vice president for not facilitating the mission and accused her of passing the responsibility for the execution of the plan to the autonomous communities.
In the text, Hohlmeier takes note of Calviño’s “proactivity” for having contacted first, criticizes that it was leaked to the press shortly after and is “sure that (the Spanish vice president) did not intend to anticipate the conclusions of the mission before it had started.
It also urges him to facilitate a meeting with the former director general in charge of executing the recovery plan, Rocío Frutos, whose meeting “unfortunately” is not among those scheduled during the visit.
In addition to meetings with Calviño, Montero and the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, the three-day visit includes exchanges with representatives of the regional governments of Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, Aragón, Extremadura and Andalusia, as well as with the CEOE, UGT or the association of self-employed workers ATA.
They will also hold meetings with associations such as ANFAC, AEB or Ametic, as well as with the Chamber of Commerce, the consultants Ernst & Young and PWC and a small group of journalists.
In addition to this, two other missions will travel to Spain next week, one to analyze with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) the future legislation on the protection of geographical indications and another to evaluate gender policies and fight against sexist violence.