The Diplomat
The European Investment Bank Group (EIB) signed 98 operations in Spain in 2020 for a total volume of €8.454 billion, 58% of which dedicated to mitigating the economic and healthcare impacts of COVID-19.
According to the report on the results of its activity in Spain for 2020, published on Wednesday, the measures taken by the EIB to mitigate the effects of the pandemic focused on two main areas: supporting the healthcare sector and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With these objectives in mind, the EIB Group has signed 46 operations in Spain for a total volume of €4.9 billion and has approved operations worth €12.1 billion, “making Spain the country with the largest volume of financing approved for projects related to COVID-19”.
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Furthermore, Spain has not only been the first country to benefit from the European Guarantee Fund (EGF), a fund provided with nearly €25 billion that aims to mobilise up to €200 billion in financing, but is also the country that has received the most approvals under the EGF, with projects approved for a total volume of €2.650 billion in 2020.
“2020 has been a tragic year that we will never forget and Spain has been one of the European countries most affected by COVID-19”, said EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix, who is responsible for the Bank’s activity in the country, at a press conference. “For this reason, more than half of the financing provided by the EIB Group in Spain has been dedicated to tackle the healthcare crisis and to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic, helping Spanish companies to keep their businesses afloat, preserving value and saving jobs”, he continued.
The COVID-19 crisis, according to the EIB, “has put even more emphasis on the urgent need to support SMEs, which represent a substantial part of the production and employment landscape in Spain”. To this end, 50% of the EIB Group’s total activity in Spain was intended to meet the liquidity requirements of these companies, which received €4.195 billion to ensure that they have the funds required to keep their businesses afloat. Moreover, Spain was the third-largest beneficiary of financing related to promoting projects that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, reaching 38% (€2.85 billion) of its activity in the country, a 9-percentage point increase on the previous year.
Spain was also the third most benefited country in Europe in 2020 by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the main pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe, in terms of both operations approved and investments mobilised. In fact, Spain was the third country in Europe with the third highest volume of funding from the Investment Plan for Europe between 2015 and 2020, with a total of 176 Spanish projects worth €13,164 million.
Moreover, the financing provided by the EIB for the development of new infrastructure in Spain throughout 2020 grew to a total of €1.351 billion, which is a 45% increase compared to the previous year. “As part of this objective, the EIB is helping to adapt and modernise the Spanish healthcare infrastructure in response to the COVID-19 crisis, to develop railway infrastructure towards cleaner modes of transport, and to promote the construction of social housing among other priorities”, the Bank said.
