Junta's head calls for energy taxes to be reduced and a special fund for Ukrainian refugees to be set up

Juanma Moreno, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, told the meeting of the regional presidents on La Palma yesterday, Sunday 13 March, that energy taxes need to be reduced, and called for a State plan and funding to coordinate the accommodation and care of refugees from Ukraine. He suggested a series of short-term measures to alleviate the impact of the war and the rise in energy prices, such as reducing IVA on products which are essential for households and businesses, such as applying a rate of four per cent for electricity.

He said a tax reduction such as this would be “the quickest and most direct way possible to reduce the price of electricity” and called for a rethink of how the EU Next Generation funds should be applied because "the world has changed and these funds, which were planned to be used for the pandemic, have to be reformulated in some way to combat the rise in prices”.

He also called for a State-run plan to coordinate the reception of Ukrainian refugees, to make it known how many each region can take and manage the places available. In addition, he said there should be an extraordinary fund to cover the Ukrainians' social, health and educational needs and the legal criteria for looking after refugee children should be specified.

Many of the regional presidents also agreed that they need the same deficit level as the State so they can deal with this unexpected situation.