Andalucía gains allies to push for more EU investment in drought relief funding

Getting Europe to allocate structural funds to combat drought has long been a top priority on the Junta de Andalucía's foreign policy agenda. Last year the Junta attempted, unsuccessfully, to have at least part of the resources mobilised to overcome the post-pandemic crisis be diverted to drought relief projects. Despite not achieving this objective, the Junta did consider the appointment of a commissioner with specific responsibilities for water matters a success in its foreign policy efforts.

One of the arguments used by Junta president Juanma Moreno Bonilla to rally support for his European crusade against the drought was that the lack of rainfall affecting southern Europe would sooner or later end up reaching the richer north. The weather ended up proving him right much sooner than expected.

So, when Moreno began the first of two days of his European agenda last Wednesday with a meeting in Brussels with the minister for European Relations of the regional government of Bavaria, Eric Beiwenger, he did so under a blazing sun, unusual weather for this time of year in the EU capital. Even more unusual was the temperature - around 25 degrees Celsius.

This was not a one-off incident by any means. Brussels has had almost two months of sunny days and high temperatures, and in countries such as Germany, Ireland, Sweden and Poland it has hardly rained at all in the last three months. In fact, and despite the fact that in Bavaria the warmer weather is not yet a cause for concern, it was Beiwenger himself who brought up the subject during his meeting with Moreno at the headquarters of the German region's representation in Brussels, according to Junta sources.

The objective, now shared, is that every year funds should be provided to carry out any necessary work to guarantee water supply throughout Europe.

Juanma Moreno welcomed the fact that Bavaria's sensitivity to the water problem in southern Europe has helped to place this debate at the heart of the European Commission's objectives.

The coincidences were not limited to the drought. Andalucía's regional government is making great efforts to establish a strategic alliance with this region of Germany, one of the most industrialised in Europe and a leader in the automotive sector. "It is a very productive länder [federal state] and one that we have as a benchmark example to follow," said Moreno after the meeting, "I believe we have many things in common and many common concerns."

One of these concerns revolves around agriculture. Both regional governments consider that the objectives set out in the European Green Deal cannot be achieved within the established deadlines, which is why it is necessary to slow them down "and meet them in a more rigorous and much more reasonable manner", according to the Junta president.

The meeting also addressed other common concerns, such as the lack of energy autonomy and the impact of tariffs, but the issue that most concerns European regional governments is the threat of centralisation that hangs over the management and distribution of European cohesion funds. "Europe is built from the cities, from the regions", stated Moreno as Beiwenger nodded. Also on this crucial issue, both regional governments have agreed to walk together.

Afterwards, Moreno held a meeting with Thomas Schmidt (Saxony's minister of state for regional development and mediator between Saxony and Brussels), in which issues related to the production of green energies in Andalucía were discussed, a process in which this politician and his region have shown interest.