Catalonia heads the distribution of European funds, with 3,722 million

BarcelonaIn the final stretch of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM), the cornerstone of the Next Generation European funds created to overcome the consequences of the 2020 pandemic, Catalonia leads the distribution of these resources, with a total of 3,700 million euros and a "cross-cutting" sectoral dominance, according to a study by EsadeEcPol. From the start of this program until today and four months before the end of the program (it ends in August), projects have been launched in Spain for 90,718 million and a total of 63,403 million have been awarded.

The more than 27,000 million difference between calls and awards should be closed before August, warn the authors of the study, Manuel Hidalgo, Jorge Galindo and Javier Martínez. "Temporal pressure has become a determining factor" to absorb the capital planned within the established deadlines, they warn. The report recommends in this phase to focus on, rather than launching large calls, closing the gap between what is called and what is awarded by simplifying procedures and granting regional governments, which have demonstrated management capacity, the possibility of using their capillarity to reach where the central administration does not.

A notable element of this process is that 1% of the companies that receive the most funds account for 71.4% of the total aid distributed. These are mainly infrastructure managers and large industrial corporations. The presence of small and medium-sized enterprises is marginal. Although the sectoral distribution is broad, by sectors in Catalonia, construction dominates, with 961 million, as in all territories, and water and waste infrastructures, with 626 million, an amount that quadruples that of the next autonomous community in this area; followed by trade, with 337 million; information and communications, with 231 million; and manufacturing, with 185 million. The authors highlight that Andalusia leads not only in construction (970 million) but also in information and communications, with 311 million, above Catalonia and also Madrid (231 million).

In general, construction, meaning investment in physical infrastructures, dominates in all autonomies and digital investment "is distributed better than expected". On the other hand, "sectors critical for long-term social resilience, such as education or health, continue to receive marginal allocations in most territories", according to the EsadeEcPol study. The only specific exceptions are Madrid, with 62 million in health, and Catalonia, with 38 million in education.

The Basque Country, in euros per capita

The classification of territorial distribution changes if it is done in per capita resources. In this case, it is the Basque Country that leads, with 732 euros; followed by Aragon, with 729 euros, and the Balearic Islands, with 712 euros. Catalonia is in tenth position, with 479 euros. And the Community of Madrid, which in absolute terms is among those receiving the most resources, like Catalonia, drops to 15th place, with 366 euros, as does Andalusia, 16th, with 365 euros.

In December, the Spanish government renounced 60 billion euros in European loans, 73% of the loan tranche, reducing the total program to 103 billion euros. The executive justified this by the fact that, in addition to freeing itself from the conditions associated with the loans and that the Treasury can finance itself in the markets at similar interest rates to European loans, it also "highlights the difficulties encountered in deploying the ambitious investment program within the established deadlines".

As a consequence of these decisions, lines such as ICO-Verd and ICO-Empreses practically disappeared. In return, the Spanish government injected 13 billion euros into the ICO to maintain financing capacity beyond 2026 and announced the creation of a sovereign fund initially endowed with 10.5 billion euros from remaining credits. 160 measures of the plan were also revised and 17 planned reforms were eliminated, including the law on the authority for the defense of the financial consumer.

In total across the State, construction is the sector that has attracted the most resources, with more than 13 billion euros; followed by trade, with 3.899 billion, and information and communications, with 3.532 billion. Water collection and treatment, with 2.446 billion, and professional, scientific and technical activities, with 3.379 billion. In any case, under the heading construction is included everything from residential building to civil engineering, including specialized construction.

A good part of the initiatives are linked to large railway infrastructures, high-speed lines, freight corridors, station modernization, mostly managed by Adif, as well as energy rehabilitation projects for buildings, environmental restoration of degraded areas and development of water infrastructures. Regarding trade, resources largely go to modernization and digitalization programs aimed primarily at SMEs and micro-enterprises.