Brussels denies the freezing of funds to Spain: That statement is "unfounded"

Spain assures that the European Commission is aware that it is working on improvements to information systems

BRUSSELS, 14 (EUROPE PRESS)

The European Commission has denied this Friday that it has frozen part of the recovery funds of the European Union, warning that “any statement” in this regard is “unfounded”, although it has clarified that it will review that Spain is making progress in the agreed compliance when receives the Government’s request to access the third tranche of 6,000 million euros.

“Any assertion that the Commission has frozen funds to Spain under the recovery and resilience mechanism is unfounded,” a spokesperson for the Community Executive told Europa Press, noting that Spain has “satisfactorily met all the milestones and objectives related to to all payments requested so far”.

Brussels thus comes out of the information published by ‘Bloomberg’ regarding Spain’s delay in meeting the deadlines to establish a new audit system for European funds, which would prevent it from accessing new aid until that milestone, number 173 of the Spanish reform plan.

The spokesman recalls in his clarification that Spain has already received all the money linked to the tranches requested so far and “they have been disbursed” after receiving the approval of the Member States.

Brussels points out that, within the framework of the first payment executed, both the community services and the Twenty-seven considered that the commitment to establish a digital system to monitor and control the recovery plan “was satisfactorily fulfilled.”

However, the spokesman has specified that “to ensure continued compliance” with this challenge, Spain assumed a series of “commitments” that are described from the preliminary evaluation of the first tranche published in December 2021, a practice that Brussels warns of that “it is not an unusual practice”.

“Other Member States have made similar commitments,” adds the community source, who explains that these types of conditions “are only evaluated at the time of a relevant payment request.”

In practice, this means that the Community Executive will not be able to examine compliance until the request for the third tranche, which Spain has not yet requested, but is expected to do so before the end of the year.

SPAIN IS WORKING ON IMPROVEMENTS IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Sources from the Ministry of Finance have argued that information and traceability systems are being applied from the outset, in collaboration with all administrations.

Despite this, the Ministry headed by María Jesús Montero has recognized that it is a complex process, since the decentralization of fund management is an element that adds complexity to the process.

For this reason, the Treasury ensures that the dialogue with the European authorities is “fluid and constant” and the European Commission is aware that Spain is working, in collaboration with the Tax Agency, on improvements to information systems.

THE GOVERNMENT PREPARES THE NEW REQUEST FOR 6,000 MILLION AND THE ADDENDUM

As confirmed by the Government, the request for the 6,000 million corresponding to the third disbursement of European funds ‘Next Generation EU’ is already being prepared, which will be linked to the fulfillment of 29 milestones and objectives (20 reforms and 9 investments).

A few weeks ago, the First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, assured that the request will be submitted “on similar dates” to those of last year –around the month of November– and stated that on today they are underway and “all the necessary steps” have been taken to meet those 29 milestones and objectives.

At the end of July this year, the Spanish Treasury received 12,000 million euros linked to the second disbursement of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the fulfillment of 40 milestones and objectives (31 milestones and 9 objectives) throughout the second semester of 2021, one of the most relevant keys for the arrival of resources being the approval of the labor reform.

In total, Spain has already received more than 31,000 million from the ‘Next Generation EU’ funds after having already completed the pre-financing and the first two payments of the transfers assigned to the country. Spain has thus been the first country to present and receive these two disbursements, which implies having satisfactorily met 83 milestones and 9 objectives.

In addition, the Executive plans to present the addendum to the Recovery Plan and approve it before the end of the year to mobilize the 7,700 million euros of additional transfers assigned to Spain and the more than 84,000 million euros in loans.