The Diplomat
EU finance ministers yesterday approved the first disbursements related to the national recovery and resilience plans of Spain and eleven other countries, who will be able to make use of European funds to boost their economies and recover from the consequences of COVID-19. In the case of Spain, this decision will allow the release of a first tranche of 9 billion euros that will arrive this month in the form of an advance payment.
The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) approved yesterday in Brussels the first batch of implementing decisions concerning the approval of the national recovery and resilience plans of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Belgium, which from now on will be able to sign grant and loan agreements allowing for pre-financing of up to 13%.
“The Spanish plan has just been approved by Ecofin”, said the government’s First Vice President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, via her Twitter account. “This paves the way for the implementation of the NextGeneration EU investments and reforms for a strong, green, digital, inclusive and fair recovery in Europe”, added Calviño, who did not attend the Ecofin meeting because it coincided with the first Council of Ministers of the new reshuffled government of Pedro Sánchez.
On June 16, the Commission sent the Council a positive assessment of the plans of the twelve Member States, accompanied by the proposals for Council decisions on the approval of these plans. On the same day, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, personally went to Madrid to convey to Sánchez the approval of the Spanish Government’s Recovery Plan. “Once the plan is approved by the European Council, we will be able to disburse the first funds in July”, she announced at a press conference.
Following the approval of the national plans by the Commission, the twelve States requested the pre-financing of the allocated funds. The decisions adopted yesterday by the Council are therefore the last step before the Member States can conclude grant and loan agreements with the Commission and start receiving funds to enable them to implement their national plans. “EU funding can soon start flowing to finance reforms and investments”, European Commission economic vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis wrote yesterday via his Twitter profile.
In the Spanish case, the Commission’s decision will give the government access over the next six years to €69.5 billion in non-repayable grants, half of the €140 billion allocated to Spain in Next Generation EU. According to the timetable envisaged by Brussels, Spain could receive a total of 19 billion this year. The first 9 billion – 13% of the money that corresponds to Spain in subsidies – will arrive automatically this month, in the form of an advance, following yesterday’s Ecofin decision. Apart from that, there will be an additional disbursement of 10 billion, scheduled for the end of the year, which will depend on the fulfillment of 50 targets agreed by Madrid with Brussels. To receive the 69.5 billion euros in subsidies, which will be released every six months, Spain will have to meet more than 400 targets. The largest disbursement should arrive in June 2022, with 13.8 billion euros.
