It is not easy to pay attention to matters that are important but boring or routine in these times of Netflix, Eurocup and covid. This is not a new phenomenon, of course: in the nineties some of us studied infinitesimal calculus in times of tents, Dream Team and shoulder pads. Already the great Pericles faces a similar dilemma before a funeral oration to the fallen in the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian democrat wants to highlight the bravery of those killed in combat in an era of quasi-permanent wars, he knows that the friends of the fallen will consider his praise insufficient and that the rest will tend to think that what he says is routine hyperbole. Pericles resolves the situation with a speech that continues to make an impact, 2,500 years later, as a eulogy to citizenship, public service, merit and deliberation. The rest of us, when we want to highlight something important but more or less routine or boring, will have to content ourselves with having less impact than Pericles.
This is the case when discussing the Next Generation funds, the multimillion-dollar investments promoted by the EU to overcome the crisis, gigantic investments that will be financed by the Union itself, that is, by its richest states. It is an issue that has been discussed at length and is generally accepted in the same way as one accepts an audit: it is important, but not exactly exciting.
Seizing the opportunity of Next Generation funds will be very difficult.
This is a pity and a mistake. We should not let our instinct, which is very focused on the spectacular and immediate, fool us. Discussing European funds can be as boring as going for a blood test, but surely it is no exaggeration to say that this is our greatest opportunity since we joined the EU. In a few years huge amounts of economic resources are going to reach Spain with a transformational objective: to reactivate and modernize our economy through strategic investments. It is a transformation that, for better or worse, wants to bring about change through investment, not through reforms or adjustments.
These are oppositions to modernity. Let us also know that it will be extraordinarily difficult to make the most of this opportunity: we must devise, choose and execute taxonomically impactful projects: actions that generate valuable knowledge that is difficult to acquire, that force multi-organizational collaborations to create greater impact and that, above all, improve the productivity of broad layers of our society. Let us remember that productivity is the basis of prosperity and is essential to achieve an environmentally sustainable economy. It is also a good opportunity to think 20 years ahead. All this will require that the rules for accessing funds promote these objectives, that administrations are aligned, that there are highly specialized selection and monitoring teams and that intelligent use is made of legislation that prioritizes administrative guarantees, not agility, results or innovation. It will be necessary to strike a good balance between risk and return, which means accepting that not everything will turn out well. Everything, in a short time. The Greeks already said that the goddess Fortune is capricious.
To achieve our objectives, we must be able to avoid polemics, know how to make demands, understand what mistakes are to be expected and make a collective effort of responsibility, ambition, sobriety and management. It is everybody’s business. Some say that Spain only does things well when it is at the limit, let’s show that we also, for example, manage boredom well.
Article written in La Vanguardia:
https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20210720/7613957/fortuna-favorece-aburridos.html
