Spanish government vows to budget for Tarragona’s Mediterranean Games
The mayor of Tarragona meets with government minister Méndez de Vigo, who guarantees that the executive will join the organising committee
According to Josep Fèlix Ballesteros, the mayor of Tarragona, speaking after a meeting on Thursday with Íñigo Méndez de Vigo —the minister for Education, Culture and Sports—, the Spanish government has promised to include funding for the Mediterranean Games in Spain’s 2017 budget.
Ballesteros also stated that, among other promises, the Spanish government has vowed to fill the seat that so far has remained vacant on the Games’ foundation alongside Tarragona town council, the Tarragona provincial government and the Catalan executive. This way, the ministry will share responsibility for the organisation of the Games, now delayed from 2017 to 2018.
The financial support provided by the government is still to be finalised, and the mayor didn’t want to go into detail about numbers, even though talk up to now has been of a need for 12 million euros, plus the costs deriving from delaying the Games. Moreover, Méndez de Vigo has promised to prolong the financial benefits for the companies and sponsors involved in the event.
A “permanent” working group will be created to monitor the agreement and to decide on the final figures needed. Ballesteros feels that the meeting “went very well”, and was positive about the attitude of the minister who, according to him, is strongly committed to the Games.
As with details of the amount of money on the table, Ballesteros also avoided discussing what will happen if the Spanish government fails to pass its 2017 budget for lack of parliamentary support, though he values the support “of all political groups” for the Games.
The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco, who was also present at the meeting, called it a “historic day” as it guaranteed that the games will go ahead from the 22 June to 11 July 2018.
