Spain pledges investment in R&D+i and the development of a low-carbon economy

She was speaking during the meeting of the Ministers Responsible for Cohesion Policy held on Tuesday in Riga, where she also explained the Spanish commitment to SMEs for which the central and regional governments have together contributed 800 million euros of ERDF aid.

The informal meeting chaired by Latvia of the Council of the European Union has allowed Spain to explain its intention to support the new concept of using structural funds to comply with the growth and employment targets for the 2014-2020 period. Marta Fernández Currás, whose department is responsible for the management of EU funds, highlighted that the Association Agreement signed by Spain and the Operational Programmes for implementing the strategies are firmly committed to targeting results. "The programmes clearly define what we want to achieve through the application of the funds, with a more strategic results-targeted approach," she explained. She added that the application of the thematic focus will represent a significant change in the way the funds are planned, focusing on a smaller number of areas to achieve a greater impact. In this respect, she highlighted the special effort that will be made in the area of energy efficiency to boost the development of a low-carbon economy, and in the development of Regional Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3), which she said would help optimise the effect of investment in Research, Development and Innovation (R&D+i) and the competitiveness of Spanish production capacity.

SME initiative

On the issue of how Cohesion Policy can contribute to stimulating additional investment, the State Secretary stressed Spain's firm commitment in favour of SMEs through their participation in the financial instrument entitled "SME Initiative".

This initiative is the result of the European Council meetings of June and October 2013, which highlighted the financing needs of the European economy and in particular of SMEs. In March 2014, Spain was almost alone in the EU in demonstrating its commitment to participating in this financial instrument using ERDF funds.

Between them, the central and regional governments have contributed some 800 million euros in ERDF funds to the SME initiative, which are expected to mobilise a volume of loans amounting to 4 billion euros. This leverages 5 times the funding provided for the instrument.

"We estimate that the SME initiative will benefit more than 32,000 companies across Spain, of which at least 2,700 will be new companies. The SME initiative will also generate some 6,400 new jobs, calculating the average number of employees per Spanish SME at around four, and we expect that it will help consolidate the jobs of more than 120,000 workers who work in the SMEs that benefit from the initiative.

At the Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Cohesion Policy, Mart Fernández Currás insisted that Spain is tackling the new programming period with enthusiasm and the accumulated experience of a number of years, "maintaining our focus, as we have done so far, on the consolidation of growth, support for productive capacity and above all, job creation."