Congress did not barely reduce its travel spending in 2023 despite the months of dissolved Cortes and little activity

Last year, 7.75 million were allocated to pay for national and international trips of deputies

MADRID, 11 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Congress hardly reduced its spending on travel for deputies in 2023, despite the fact that the Cortes were dissolved at the end of May due to the call for the general elections on July 23 and the following months were of little activity and no a fruitful investiture until mid-November. What's more, the money invested in international travel was greater due to the Spanish Presidency of the European Union during the second half of the year.

Specifically, according to data collected by Europa Press, the total billing for both national and international trips amounted to 6,754,236.87 euros in 2023, only 129,460.28 euros less than the previous year (1.91%). , which had closed with a global expense of 6,883,697.15 euros.

For trips within the national territory, the total billed was 3,745,564.13 euros as of December 31, 2023, compared to 4,142,377.24 euros the previous year. That is, almost 400,000 euros less were invested in trips within Spain, a drop of 9.57%.

Billing expenses include all those generated by procedures, cancellations and changes, as well as tickets issued but not yet used.

This section includes trips for 'parliamentary activity' - between Madrid and the respective constituencies of your honorable Members and vice versa - which totaled 2.27 million; those called 'political activity', which reached 701,510 euros, and 'official' trips, to which only 1,109 euros were dedicated.

The Cortes were dissolved at the end of May and the new ones were not established until August 17. From that date until Pedro Sánchez's investiture on November 16, only four plenary sessions were held.

What did not stop despite the dissolution were the trips of the Spanish delegations to the international parliamentary assemblies, although as the Cortes were dissolved only those who were part of the Permanent Deputation traveled, and once the new ones were formed, those who managed to revalidate seat.

However, a third of the spending on international activities went to the parliamentary dimension of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, which brought together 1.38 million euros. In total, more than three million were dedicated to international meetings in 2023, almost 10% more than in the previous year.

In total, the Chamber has recorded a total of 144 international activities to which more than 3,008,672.74 euros were dedicated, an amount to which must be added the cost of fifteen of them that has not yet been invoiced.

This is an increase of 9.7% compared to the 2022 figures, when spending on international activities amounted to 2,741,319.91 euros.

In 2023, the most expensive were the events related to the so-called 'parliamentary dimension of the Presidency of the European Union' that Spain held between June 1 and December 31 and in which 1.38 million have been invested.