The European Commission has approved this Friday a third disbursement to the Spanish State of 6,000 million euros from the post-pandemic recovery fund after verifying that it has met the 29 objectives linked to it, as reported by the institution in a statement.

Now, the States of the European Union have four weeks to give their approval to the payment which, if confirmed, will bring the total number of subsidies received from the Next Generation fund by Spain to 37,036 million euros, the community country that has obtained the most disbursements. till the date.

Brussels has verified that the Spanish State implemented the committed reforms and investments for the first half of 2022, specifically 23 milestones and 6 objectives, as well as correcting some deficiencies that had been detected in the audit system.

This green light takes place three days before a group of MEPs travels to Spain to evaluate the execution of the plan and also opens the door for work to begin for the fourth payment of 10,000 million, which includes, among other issues crucial aspects of the pension reform, such as the extension of the calculation period and an analysis to assess the sustainability of the system.

Among the milestones of the third tranche validated this Friday are the reform of the Bankruptcy Law, the Law on the Comprehensive Vocational Training System, the reform of the Social Security contribution system for self-employed workers, the Law on Prevention Measures and Fight against Tax Fraud or other reforms for the development and promotion of investments related to renewable energies.

He disbursement was linked as well as advances in R+D+i projects in the automotive sector, the financing of projects to promote the sustainability and competitiveness of agriculture and livestock, the reinforcement of the fight against forest fires or actions for the improvement of the rate of access to the minimum vital income, among other milestones and objectives.

In addition, Brussels had to assess with this payment whether Spain has resolved some deficiencies in the audit and control system of the plan that were detected when analyzing the first payment request, specifically related to the information on contracts in which the beneficiary of the aid was a foreign company without legal representation in Spain.

If the States give the green light to the third disbursement, this will be added to the advance of 9,036 million and the two payments of 10,000 and 12,000 million that Spain has already received, with which the country will have obtained 37,036 million euros, almost half of the total grants that correspond to it from the fund until 2026.

In addition, the Government has approved the addendum to the recovery plan by which it will request 84,000 million euros in loans and another 7,700 million in additional transfers from the Next Generation fund, to which are added 2,600 million from the new mechanism RepowerEU to reduce energy dependency.

In total, another 94.3 billion euros for new investments and reforms in the energy, industrial, agri-food and technological fields that will also have to receive the go-ahead from Brussels.

Source: Eitb

Alia

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