The Diplomat
The Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) has demanded a greater role for the private sector and the Autonomous Communities in terms of receiving the more than 94,000 million additional euros planned for the second part of the Recovery Plan. Likewise, it has requested that the progress of the milestones and objectives of the plan be readjusted during the current negotiation process of the addendum approved by the Government last June.
Spain is among the countries with the greatest execution of funds in accordance with the European calendar, according to the fifth CEOE Report on monitoring Next Generation funds in Spain, presented last Thursday.
To date, Spain has received 37,036 million euros in subsidies out of the total 160,000 million euros of the Recovery Plan, after the third disbursement approved by the European Commission. “All of this responds to the fulfillment of the milestones and objectives designed in the Plan, where to date there has been a greater weight of the reforms, and a growing rate of publication of large calls,” the document states.
On the other hand, Spain requested Brussels last June for authorization of an addendum to its Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The executive is awaiting the response, which could arrive at the end of this month of September, to request the 10,000 million euros of the fourth tranche of the European Next Generation funds (7,700 million euros in transfers and 2,600 million from the REpowerEU mechanism to break energy dependence on Moscow) and to access the second phase of the European Recovery Plan and opt for the 84,000 million euros in loans that correspond to the aforementioned mechanism.
Plan redesign
According to the CEOE report, with the increase in the pace of resolution of calls in key instruments of the private sector and the new funds contemplated in the addendum, a redesign of the main lines of projects of the Recovery Plan is necessary, greater involvement of the financial sector in the channeling of loans and greater flexibility and autonomous management to meet European deadlines.” To do this, he continues, “Spain must increase its absorption capacity to guarantee a transformative impact of the Plan.”
Likewise, to face the challenges that will be involved in channeling the funds of the second phase of the Plan (including 84,000 million euros in loans), the report considers that the figure of PERTE should be reinforced as the key instrument for collaboration and public-private negotiation.
In addition, the employers’ association continues, companies (large, SMEs and the self-employed) need greater flexibility in access and deadlines for submitting calls, which requires reinforcement of the public sector and the financial sector to be able to eliminate bureaucracy and reinforce administrative agility. Likewise, the document defends greater coordination with the autonomous communities to gain agility and ensure the capillarity of the aid, as well as for the awarded projects to adapt to the territorial reality, designing priority issues, such as the conditions for granting the loans of the addendum.
Likewise, and in line with what was stated by competent organizations at the European level, “a higher level of aggregate information regarding the execution of the Plan would be desirable, especially with regard to the resolution of the main lines and the main recipients and beneficiaries of the Plan.” Plan,” he continues.
The addendum
On the other hand, the report continues, the period of evaluation of the addendum by the European authorities opens the door to a negotiation process that must be key to being able to readjust the progress of the milestones and objectives of the Recovery Plan. In this way, the draft addendum must specify various relevant issues for the channeling of funds, such as the role and conditions of financial entities or the establishment of a calendar with the deadlines for the new funds and the commitments assumed to receive the disbursements. corresponding.
In this way, the decentralization of major aid will be guaranteed, making it easier for regional SMEs to have access to it. To do this, it is essential to define the key sectors and capabilities at the territorial level to promote Spain’s strategic autonomy in areas such as energy, agri-food, industry, technology or digitalization, with special attention to cybersecurity.
The document also highlights that the recent relaxation of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, which will apply until the end of the year, favors support in key sectors for the ecological transition, with the opportunity to readjust the deadlines for meeting certain milestones and objectives in the framework of this addendum negotiation process. “Therefore, the renegotiation for the second phase of the Recovery Plan is a clear opportunity to specify and redesign existing investment lines, as well as specific programs, their scope of action, scope and focus,” says the employer.
In this sense, issues such as the incorporation of tax credits or the establishment of moratoriums and deferrals of payments to Social Security and the Treasury would serve to guarantee liquidity, financing and solvency for Spanish SMEs.
Finally, and in relation to the Important Projects of Common Interest (IPCEI), whose execution deadlines extend until 2031, the report highlights the need to reinforce progress in this field and give it a boost as the main objective for this year in a way that strengthens the strategic autonomy of Spain at the European level. The IPCEIs are a powerful transnational instrument that reinforces public-private collaboration.
