Andalucian municipalities will this year receive €205.3 million under the Agricultural Employment Plan, formerly the PER, an increase of 0.9% over 2009.
The Minister of Interior and Justice, Luis Pizarro, and the Head of Finance and Public Administration, Carmen Martínez Aguayo, yesterday signed an agreement with the eight Andalucian provinces to finance the creation of employment in the agricultural sector.
The Junta de Andalucia will provide €52.8 million, almost the same as last year, and the provincial councils will provide €13.8 million for materials to finance infrastructure projects in the municipalities.
Pizarro stressed the importance of this agreement both for institutional cooperation and its ability to generate substantial employment in small and medium-sized towns in Andalucia, contributing to the consolidation of the population in rural areas.
One does, of course, occasionally see some strange projects being financed with ‘agricultural’ funds, the connection to agriculture being, at best, somewhat tenuous.