Last Thursday, the European Commission partially greenlit Spain’s sixth payment request worth 5.7 billion euros under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the centerpiece of NextGenerationEU.
At the same time, it processed a payment for two previously suspended milestones under the fifth payment request.
This is an important step to carry out reforms and investments linked to this payment request in key areas such as biodiversity, sustainable mobility, research and development, social rights, education and vocational training, culture, sustainable tourism, water management, and justice efficiency.
The Commission has noted that Spain has successfully completed 51 milestones and 22 of the 25 objectives set out in the Council’s Implementing Decision.
Among the flagship measures of this payment request are the following:
Strengthening the regulatory framework in the housing market: improve accessibility and affordability of housing by updating the Statute of the State Housing and Land Entity and formulating recommendations and best practices for urban planning licenses in the residential sector.
Strengthening the healthcare system: boost public health resilience and efficiency in personnel management by creating the State Agency for Public Health, implementing specific measures to address the critical shortage of healthcare personnel, and reforming the specialized healthcare training system.
Support for sustainable mobility: accelerate the transition to safe, low-emission transport through strategic investments in modernizing road infrastructure and sustainable mobility solutions.
Improving the digitalization of the railway network of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T): strengthen transport infrastructure through the deployment of specific digitalization measures that enhance reliability, sustainability, and cybersecurity.
Implementation of strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation (PERTE): promote the industrial modernization of Spain, fostering energy efficiency, digital transformation, and sustainable growth in key economic sectors.
During this evaluation, the Commission concluded that the milestone related to digitalization of regional and local entities -from the fifth payment request and previously assessed as only partially fulfilled- has now been successfully completed. Consequently, the suspended amount related to this milestone will be included in the sixth disbursement. This amounts to 25 million euros.
Additionally, regarding a milestone in the area of taxation that was also included in the fifth payment request, the Commission has evaluated the additional evidence presented by Spain and has proposed lifting a substantial part of the previously decided suspension. This will represent an additional 277 million euros.
On the other hand, the Commission is still not in a position to comment on three pending objectives linked to the sixth payment request. These objectives refer, respectively, to investments in bilingual vocational training, teleassistance services, and support projects for vulnerable groups, entrepreneurship, and microenterprises. Spain intends to submit a motivated request to modify these objectives in order to clarify the necessary elements to demonstrate the execution of the investment, while ensuring that the ambition and political objectives of the measures are maintained.
The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Spain’s compliance with the required milestones and objectives for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to issue its opinion. In parallel, the Commission has communicated to Spain the reasons why it believes the mentioned objectives have not been satisfactorily fulfilled. Spain now has one month to submit its observations to the Commission.
If the Commission, after receiving Spain’s observations, confirms its assessment that the objectives in question have not been satisfactorily fulfilled, it will suspend the amount corresponding to those objectives from the total amount of 5.7 billion euros of this payment request.
