The Government renounces another 1,260 million European funds in the final request to the European Union. This is stated in the ninth modification of the Recovery Plan since 2021, which finally raises the figure that the Government is giving up to more than 61.7 billion.
Of the around 163,000 million initially planned, Spain will barely be able to exceed the 101,000 million that it finally receives from the EU of the funds created in the pandemic. And the final figure may still go down due to unmet milestones or objectives or funds that have to be returned due to poor execution.
The Ministry of Economy maintains that the loan chapter has lost interest for Spain due to its financing conditions close to those of the European Union, but these have not stopped worsening compared to last January, when the first resignation was made official. Spain currently has more costs to finance itself than it would have had if it had requested the loans in recent years.
In the PP, however, they attribute the continuous withdrawals to the inability to execute the so-called Recovery and Resilience Mechanism in the last year after the delays accumulated since 2021.
From the last addendum it is clear that the Government aspires to try to obtain almost the entire chapter of subsidies, close to 80,000 million, and only about 21,449 million in loans, giving up 75% of this part of the aid.
The reasons described by the European Commission for Spain to request less money are striking and mentions not only "the suppression of the measure for the Plan to improve the efficiency and sustainability of irrigation", but also "the reduction in the level of execution of measures such as the ICO loan line for the Promotion of Social Housing." "Therefore, the total amount of loan aid made available to Spain should be reduced to 21,448,689,929 euros," says the European Commission. Last January it still had 22,705 million, although far from the 83,160 million that the EU had reserved for Spain.
After this new change, the Government has yet to request more than 20,000 million in the seventh and final payment, which it must present now in order to receive it before the end of the year. The total figure will be difficult to achieve because, although the European Commission has accepted a downward revision of milestones and objectives in the ninth addendum, there are some that are unattainable. An example is that the Government failed to validate the so-called lobbying law this month, having even some of its investiture partners against it.
Another 200 million euros not delivered in one of the previous tranches are also considered lost as the Ministry of Finance has not been able to fulfill its environmental commitment to increase the cost of taxation on diesel. The Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, who attended the opening of the Eurocámaras congress in Valencia this Monday, does not have an unpopular measure of that caliber in his plans and at a time, moreover, of upward pressure on prices. On the contrary, the head of the Treasury supports maintaining tax credits on fuel.
Another problem is the 626 million withheld for not having undertaken a reduction in the temporary nature of public employment below 8%, currently at 26.8%.
The funds, the past
On the other hand, in the debates at the European Chambers congress, European funds are already a thing of the past. The president of the Chamber of Spain and host, Josep Lluís Bonet, did not even mention the community manna and now focused on more cooperation between the public and private sectors for new investments and strengthening the so-called Single Market. «The productive fabric does not ask for privileges. It only needs an environment that allows it to achieve its objective: create wealth, generate employment and provide solutions to the challenges of our society. And here the Chambers of Commerce have a fundamental responsibility.
The former Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, and the president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, agreed that the next challenge is to "reduce dependence on Europe." "We are on time, but it is the last chance," said the Italian. "The European Commission has clear ideas, but it is the Member States that have to comply," stressed Galán, who avoided mentioning the Spanish Government, although he did emphasize the difference in taxation that weighs on electricity and gas in Spain, despite the fact that it should be, in his opinion, the opposite, if the electrification of the country is to be promoted.
The first vice president, Carlos Body, is rushing together with Arcadi Spain to present the request for what will be the seventh and last tranche of European funds and plans to appear next Thursday at the Parliament's Joint Commission on the EU to report on the situation.
According to the latest balance sheet from the European Commission, Spain reaches this final stretch after six years with still 30% of the milestones and objectives unmet, despite the fact that these have been successively modified downwards. We will have to wait to have a final photo.
