Spain receives the first nine billion euros in European funds to finance the Recovery Plan

This first disbursement comes after the Council of Economy and Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) finally approved the Spanish Recovery Plan on 13 July, which has received the highest rating from the European authorities. The receipt of this nine billion euros in pre-financing allows the Government to continue with the deployment of the Plan to date.

In the 2021 General State Budget, allocations were included for the implementation of the Plan, which has allowed part of the resources to be executed before receiving the first disbursements from the European Commission.

In addition, the distribution of more than 7.25 billion to the Regional Governments has already been allocated and agreed among the different sectoral conferences, for investments in areas such as ecological transition, housing, education and health. These investments are mainly focused on supporting the implementation of waste regulations, correcting power lines to avoid damage to wildlife, renovating buildings, improving sanitation and water treatment services, encouraging electric mobility, modernising vocational training and reducing the digital divide, strengthening the care economy, equality and social inclusion policies, and improving high-tech healthcare equipment.

The European Commission plans to make a new disbursement to Spain this year, amounting to 10 billion euros for the milestones and objectives achieved by our country until the approval of the Plan. The Commission's six-monthly disbursement schedule will allow Spain to receive 80% of the planned transfers between 2021 and 2023.

The real transformation of the Spanish economy

The Recovery Plan incorporates 212 major investments and reforms that will enable the economic and social transformation of Spain by increasing productivity and social cohesion, the level of skills of the population, innovation and competitiveness in the aftermath of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19. The aim is to make the country greener and more digital and to reduce social, territorial and gender gaps.

Among the many specific measures included in the Recovery Plan are: digitising more than one million SMEs, supporting more than 3,000 companies for internationalisation, training more than 2.6 million people in digital skills and rolling out plans to promote female talent, installing more than 240,000 interactive digital classrooms, modernising the tourism sector with the promotion of 165 sustainable destinations and the modernisation of 3,400 establishments to reduce their energy consumption, rehabilitating more than one million homes and promoting their sustainability, achieving a fleet of at least 250,000 electric vehicles in 2023 and more than 100,000 recharging points, modernising justice so that at least 30% of judicial procedures are carried out electronically, modernising irrigation systems to ensure efficient use of water with actions in more than 100,000 hectares, extending ultra-fast broadband to 100% of the population, building more than 335 kilometres of railway in the Atlantic and Mediterranean corridors.

The Recovery Plan website

To facilitate access to the measures, investments, reforms, calls for proposals and subsidies included in the plan, the government has launched the Recovery Plan website. The site includes a special section for SMEs to access all the information necessary to participate in tenders and other PPP instruments and projects.

To date, 25 Expressions of Interest related to the Plan have been published and a high level of participation has been mobilised, as evidenced by the more than 17,500 projects submitted to the events that are now closed. In addition, the first Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation has been launched, the PERTE for Electric and Connected Vehicles, which is expected to mobilise 24 billion euros over three years thanks to public-private partnership.

Non official translation