Brussels pays Spain 9.9 billion euros from the fourth payment of EU funds and keeps 158 million euros frozen

Warns Spain that “there is still work to be done”

BRUSSELS, Jul. 26 () –

The European Commission has disbursed 9.9 billion euros to Spain this Friday in subsidies from the fourth payment of the recovery and resilience plan, which represents almost the entire tranche, lacking the 158 million that it has frozen due to the failure to meet one of the milestones.

Brussels has already confirmed in its assessment that Spain has satisfactorily met 60 of the 61 milestones, thus giving the green light to practically all of the fourth payment of 10 billion euros, although, in parallel, it has activated the payment suspension procedure because objective 201 of the plan, which refers to the investment programme for the digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ‘Agents of Change’, has not yet been “satisfactorily” met due to a lack of demand.

The Commission has acknowledged the first steps taken by the Spanish authorities in relation to the pending objective, as the ‘Kit Consulting’ programme has been launched to replace the failed one, although it warns that “work remains to be done”.

The Government now has six months to meet this objective and access full funding for the fourth tranche of the plan, otherwise it could lose the 158 million euros allocated.