No administration wants to be left behind in the race for European funds. The Barcelona Provincial Council wants to take advantage of its position as a provincial government and its structure to ensure that these resources reach the entire territory and that no municipality, however small, is left without being able to access them. "It is important that not only large municipalities, large actors or large companies have opportunities. It is important that this money reaches everyone," defended its president, Núria Marín, who has made herself available to city councils, regional councils, consortiums, companies and social entities to accompany them in this process.
The corporation will act as a local world lobby to help the consistories in the process of identification, application, execution, justification and evaluation of projects that may be eligible for Next Generation funds. In a first phase, it has identified a total of 87 projects that can opt for them, with a value of 1,700 million euros, which can be promoted by the Provincial Council itself or by the different local governments. "They are transformative projects of economic and social structures, but they are also innovative projects. With an impact of 1,700 million euros, they can relaunch our territory," Marín valued. Likewise, she stressed that all selected projects are plausible and some of them are already underway: "They are not chimerical projects, they are realistic and perfectly feasible."
The Barcelona Provincial Council foresees a second phase in the project identification process that will allow other projects not yet detected by local governments or social agents and the business fabric to emerge. That is why it has created a website with available information on these funds and the selected projects, in addition to including a form for those new initiatives that want to participate.
"They are transformative projects of economic and social structures, but they are also innovative projects. With an impact of 1,700 million euros, they can relaunch our territory," said the president of the Provincial Council, Núria Marín.Among the Provincial Council's own projects, the extension of fiber optics throughout the province stands out, including the least populated municipalities, through the corporation's road network. European resources will serve to accelerate the current Provincial Council program, which has already deployed this infrastructure along 300 kilometers and has reached 74 municipalities.The forecast is to add 300 more kilometers and reach 42 new municipalities thanks to European funds.Another project of the Provincial Council is the establishment of local energy communities with the involvement of the city councils. This program is designed for municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants and industrial estates.
On the other hand, among the projects from local governments, there is the promotion of a 5G innovation hub in Igualada, which should allow the development of pilots with this technology to innovate and improve the competitiveness of companies; the promotion of biohydrogen production in Berguedà, taking advantage of the agricultural activity of this region to foster the circular economy; the development of an app in El Prat de Llobregat that will allow tracking the kilometers each citizen travels to work in a decarbonized way, with the aim of remunerating them accordingly, and the creation of a sustainable building cluster in Viladecans through a startup accelerator and a building factory.
All of them revolve around digital transformation and ecological transition, the main objectives that Europe wants to promote through these funds, but the Barcelona Provincial Council has included other projects that also impact social and territorial cohesion. For example, it aims to boost the cultural and creative industry of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, with a reference center in digital technologies; reindustrialize Vallès Occidental; create a learning hub in Mataró that becomes a reference center in Vocational Training (FP) and continuous training; reactivate the industrial district of Badalona in the area of the Tres Xemeneies, and boost the pharmaceutical industry in Baix Llobregat.