The Spanish government will readjust the milestones of the recovery plan so as not to lose European funds

MadridThe European anti-pandemic funds are already in full countdown. The First Vice-President and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, appeared this Wednesday in Congress with August 31st marked in red, as it is the set date for the milestones and commitments of the recovery plan agreed with the European Commission to be met. The arrival of the total European funds to which each country can aspire depends on this compliance. Cuerpo has assured that the Spanish executive "is working at full speed" to achieve this and has explained that, in this regard, he will present "imminently", this July, a "technical closing addendum" to the Spanish recovery plan to readjust pending milestones to avoid losing resources.

According to Cuerpo, with this modification of commitments, "ambition in the conditions and objectives of the plan is not being lost", but rather it is a "simplification" so that Brussels can more easily verify compliance with the milestones. The objective, said the vice-president, is to "streamline the verification task" through an "adjustment of the wording so that the Commission can make an assessment in accordance with the documentation that is already available and evaluate them within the framework of the next application, the seventh and last". The Spanish government used the same resource in an addendum at the end of last year.

Despite the previous review of commitments, Cuerpo pointed out that in the sixth payment, the European Commission has temporarily suspended 537 million euros because it could not assess the fulfillment of three milestones, as the wording that had been done did not allow it to assess the available evidence. At the same time, the First Vice-President claimed that it has been almost a week since the community authorities unlocked the payment of this sixth disbursement, which amounts to 5,970 million euros in transfers and 1,051 million in loans. With these amounts, Spain will have received 76% of the total available funds.

The challenge of execution

One of the great challenges of the arrival of these funds is their execution. Cuerpo has updated the data that, as of May 31 of this year, reveal that 68,534 million euros have been awarded to companies, which means 1,500 million more than the previous figure, from the end of April. Funds worth 95,423 million euros have been announced, which means that almost 30% are pending assignment, one of the elements that some of the deputies of the mixed commission for the European Union have highlighted: ERC senator Joan Queralt has warned that "leaving funds unassigned is a luxury we cannot afford" and has urged to actively seek out niches that could benefit from them. He has also criticized an excess of centralization.

The administration that has announced the largest amount is the State with 56,923 million, of which 40,947 million are resolved. The autonomous communities have announced 25,050 million – of which 18,043 million are awarded – and local entities, 13,450 million with 9,544 million resolved. Cuerpo has highlighted that 70% of the beneficiaries are micro and small enterprises, which have received nearly 40% of the total funds.

25% of the resolved concessions have been directed towards the modernization of the industrial fabric and 12% towards the energy transition. Cuerpo has defended that Spain "has known how to take advantage of the historic opportunity" that these funds have represented.