The Diplomat
Spain formally requested yesterday to the European Commission the payment of the 10 billion euros corresponding to the first tranche of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism after the COVID-19 crisis, according to the Community Executive in a press release.
According to the Spanish Government, the request was made by the General Secretariat for European Funds, under the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration, as the Responsible Authority for the Plan, and was preceded by the signing and entry into force of the Recovery Plan Operational Arrangements (OA), which establishes the way in which the monitoring of the development of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan will be organized bilaterally between Spain and the European Commission.
“The fact that Spain was one of the first countries to present its Recovery Plan, to approve the Operational Arrangements and, now, the first to request the first disbursement, demonstrates the Government’s firm commitment to economic and social recovery” and reflects “the reformist zeal of the Executive, which is based on four axes: ecological transition, digital transformation, social and territorial cohesion and effective equality between men and women,” added the Government of Pedro Sánchez in a statement.
Spain expects to access 69.5 billion euros in non-repayable grants over the next six years, half of the 140 billion euros allocated to Spain in the Next Generation EU recovery plan. According to the Commission, these payments “are performance-based and contingent on Spain implementing the investments and reforms outlined in its recovery and resilience plan” and, in the case of this first application, Spain must meet “52 milestones covering several reforms in the areas of sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, decarbonisation, connectivity, public administration, skills, education and social, labour and fiscal policy”. Once the request has been submitted, the Commission will have two months to send to the Council’s Economic and Financial Committee its preliminary assessment of Spain’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment.
According to the schedule envisaged by Brussels, Spain should receive a total of 19 billion euros this year. The first 9 billion – 13% of the money that corresponds to Spain in subsidies – arrived last August in the form of an advance and to this amount should be added the 10 billion requested yesterday. To receive the 69.5 billion euros in subsidies (20% of the total foreseen for EU countries), which will be released every six months, Spain will have to meet more than 400 objectives. The largest disbursement should arrive in June 2022, with 13.8 billion euros.
In mid-June, the European Commission approved the Spanish Government’s Recovery Plan to overcome the crisis caused by the pandemic, as the President of the Community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, communicated in person to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, during her visit to Madrid.
Likewise, the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, declared last October 25 in Madrid that “the Spanish authorities could be among the first to request the first disbursement” because “most of the goals of the Spanish plan have already been implemented”. Apart from that, “there are other important elements that we will evaluate when we receive the proposed legislation, but we are not worried”, added the former Italian Foreign Minister, who that same day met with Pedro Sánchez; the First Vice-President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño; and the Second Vice-President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz.
