POR SI LA COSA no estuviese ya suficientemente mal:

The European Commission on Friday will present several changes to the use of regional policy funds, but these will not include an expected extension of the use of money from 2007, with Spain set to lose hundreds of millions of euros.

The phrase Spaniards do not want to hear these days is that their country "faces the risk of decommitment," meaning it could lose considerable amounts of its multi-billion EU regional aid by the end of this year.

Under present EU funding rules, which were strengthened in 2007 to prevent fraud and irregularities, member states have to get their national and regional frameworks for EU projects pre-audited and cross-checked by the European Commission, before any actual payments can be made. A small part of funding is given in advance, but most of it comes on a reimbursement basis.

Spain now risks losing hundreds of millions because most of its framework programmes have not been approved yet and claims for 2007 can only be submitted for reimbursement by 31 December 2009. The total amount Spain could claim for 2007 is €6.3 billion.