Government to save 40 million euros by 2013

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/4hLMD)
The First Vice-President of the Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, met on Tuesday morning at La Moncloa with Government delegates to explain the repercussions of the Austerity Plan affecting the General State Administration Services and the measures aimed at increasing and recovering employment approved at the most recent Council of Ministers.

At a conference held after the meeting at La Moncloa, the First Vice-President of the Government announced that the reduction in spending by the Government Delegations will mean a saving of 37.9 million euros between 2011 and 2013.

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega explained that this amount will be added to the 1.9 million euros resulting from application of the budget cuts in 2010.

The reduction will affect operating costs, scheduled adaptation and remodelling work and staffing costs through the non-filling of vacancies.

The Vice-President clarified that the cost-saving measures will not negatively affect the coverage provided by the most important public services but will rather positively affect the provision of these services because, in her opinion, “streamlining” resources means “efficiency and effectiveness”.

At the meeting held on Tuesday morning, discussion also took place on the content of the Royal Decree-Law regarding measures to foster economic and employment recovery approved on Friday 9 April by the Council of Ministers and analysis was made of the first three months of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union.

Fewer senior officials

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega announced that approval of the streamlining plan to be applied to the structure of the General State Administration Services and the public sector, initially scheduled for next Friday, will be postponed until the end of April.

The reason for this delay is the absence of the Second Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Economy and the Treasury, Elena Salgado, over the next two Fridays due to her international commitments and, from her point of view, it would be illogical to approve cut-backs that affect senior officials and public companies without Elena Salgado present.

Other matters

When asked about the document delivered to the social stakeholders by the Government ahead of talks on the labour reform, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega assured her audience that this is a tool to be used for negotiation and reaching an agreement.

She added that we still have time and reiterated that the Government is committed to workers not suffering any reductions to their rights.

Regarding the event in support of Judge Baltasar Garzón on Tuesday, she replied that the Government respects the independence of the judiciary, their agendas and their rulings, just as she respects the presumption of innocence and the career of a sitting judge such as Baltasar Garzón.

On the topic of the Gürtel affair, she described the attitude of those responsible in the Partido Popular as “unacceptable”; deciding to attack the institutions rather than provide an explanation to the public for their “shameful” behaviour.