The Advisory Board of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) met this Thursday to analyse the main actions in the second half of 2024, including the external evaluation of AIReF conducted by the European Commission and the AIReF Report on the first Medium-Term Structural-Fiscal Plan (MTP) 2025-2028. The priorities and actions to be implemented in the remaining 14 months of Cristina Herrero’s term of office to comply with the Strategic Plan 2020-2026 and incorporate the recommendations of the external evaluation were also discussed. In addition, the draft Opinion on Fiscal Risks that AIReF will submit this year to the Ministries of Finance and of Economy, Trade and Enterprise was discussed, which addresses macroeconomic risks associated with climate change and contingent liabilities.
The President of AIReF, Cristina Herrero, opened the meeting by sharing the main actions carried out by AIReF in the second half of 2024, a period that she considered somewhat disappointing in terms of fiscal supervision and more encouraging in terms of public policy evaluation – the two main functions that AIReF performs with the ultimate aim of ensuring the sustainability of public finances.
In this regard, she explained that in the second half of the year AIReF reported on the first MTP 2025-2028 and evaluated the start-up of the new European fiscal framework which, in her words, has been somewhat disappointing compared with the expectations of the reform of European fiscal governance, which has been in force since April this year. According to the President, the Spanish MTP has been developed without the national ownership that could have been expected and is not a true medium-term fiscal strategy, but rather a document of fiscal commitments and reforms. Moreover, the proposed fiscal commitments are far removed from the initial spirit of the reform, as they present a path of decreasing net expenditure, there is no harmony between the path of the national and European fiscal frameworks, and there is a great deal of uncertainty about how European fiscal supervision will be applied.
In contrast, Cristina Herrero stressed that AIReF’s public policy evaluation function offers a more encouraging balance and outlook. In July, AIReF published the Third Opinion on the Minimum Income Scheme, has completed and published several studies commissioned by the Autonomous Regions and will submit this month the studies of the first phase of the Spending Review 2022-2026. The President also welcomed the fact that the European Commission’s evaluation of the Spanish MTP includes commitments that consolidate AIReF’s evaluation of expenditure, such as the commissioning of a new review cycle when the current one ends and the obligation to adopt measures based on the studies already completed.
Lastly, the President referred to the external evaluation that AIReF has undergone over the course of 2024, the results of which have already been published. Cristina Herrero stated that this will be a key input in defining AIReF’s activity in the 2025 Action Plan, which will span 14 months until the end of her term of office. It will also be useful for promoting the updating of AIReF’s regulatory framework to adapt it to the changes that have taken place since it was created.
The AIReF Advisory Board
The Board, which meets in plenary session at least twice a year, is made up of AIReF’s President, the Steering Committee – made up of the directors of the Divisions – and the ten experts appointed as advisors – professionals of recognised national and international prestige in budgetary, economic and financial analysis and policy evaluation. These experts are Javier Andrés, Rafael Bengoa, Samuel Bentolila, Antonio Cabrales, Olga Cantó, Álvaro Escribano, Beatriz González, Eckhard Janeba, Francisco Pedraja and Eva Senra.
The Board is exclusively deliberative in nature and provides technical advice on matters that the President submits for consultation, directly related to the exercise of the powers legally entrusted to AIReF and of particular relevance to the Institution. It is an eminently technical board, without excluding the possibility of also seeking strategic advice.
The members of the Board are appointed from among professionals of recognised prestige for a period of two years, renewable for successive terms. They act with full independence and autonomy in the exercise of their functions and may request any information they deem necessary. In addition to the plenary sessions, the advisors maintain ongoing dialogue with AIReF on the lines of analysis, tools and methodologies that are the subject of commonly-defined advice.
