The Diplomat
The First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, assured yesterday that Spain has asked the European Commission to “speed up” the procedures for State aid granted through the Next Generation EU funds.
“We have asked the European Commission to speed up the State aid procedures of the Next Generation funds,” said Calviño during a press conference after meeting in Madrid with the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
“In recent weeks,” Calviño assured, “we have worked intensively with the services of the Commission, and in particular with the services of Vice-President Margrethe Vestager”, to contribute, from Spain, to the consultation opened by the European Commission itself for the review “of the legal framework for State aid”. In this framework, she continued, Spain has requested that the procedures for the approval of State aid financed with Next Generation EU funds be accelerated, “with special attention” to the strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation (the PERTE) and the rest of the projects and investments of the Spanish Government’s Recovery Plan, “which should have a particularly favorable treatment similar to the projects of common European interest”.
According to the Vice President, “Spain will be the engine of growth in Europe in 2023” and, therefore, “it is essential to further accelerate the deployment of European funds”. “It is very important that, in the current context, we streamline all procedures and ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and therefore we believe that, if a review, extension and streamlining of State aid procedures is being considered, these improvements must affect and cover the investments and strategic projects of Spain’s Recovery Plan,” she continued.
On the other hand, the Vice President informed that the Government is working on “the final document of the Addendum to the Recovery Plan, which we will send to the European Commission, to mobilize the total of the 160,000 million euros allocated to Spain between transfers and loans”. “We want to focus this Addendum to the Plan, precisely, on boosting industrialization and strategic autonomy in five dimensions: energy, agri-food, industrial, technological and digital, issues that we have obviously addressed with Commissioner Breton,” she explained.
The Addendum constitutes the second phase of the Spanish Recovery Plan and includes additional investments and reforms for the mobilization of the total transfers and loans allocated to Spain from the Next Generation EU funds until 2026. The Addendum will allow the mobilization of an additional €7.7 billion in transfers, up to €84 billion in loans and almost €2.6 billion corresponding to the new RePowerEU instrument, the plan launched by the EU to respond to the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
Spain received €31 billion of Next Generation EU funds in 2022 and has already been the first country to apply for the third disbursement of European funds, based on the fulfillment of milestones and targets. In this regard, Nadia Calviño expects that, next February 11, the European Commission will approve and make its positive assessment for this third disbursement of €6 billion.
During the meeting, Calviño and Breton discussed the need to boost European industry in an international context marked by high uncertainty and to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy. They also analyzed the expectations of the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which will take place in the second half of this year. The Commissioner was also received yesterday by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, with whom he discussed issues such as supply chains, the strengthening of industrial capacities, the energy crisis, the Spanish Presidency and the European Agenda for Tourism 2030.
