Brussels, 7 June 2023
Yesterday, Spain has submitted a request to the Commission to modify its recovery and resilience plan, to which it wants to add a REPowerEU chapter.
Spain’s overall proposed modifications would add 18 reforms and 25 new or scaled-up investments, and amount to over €95 billion in additional RRF funding.
The proposed reforms include measures to strengthen the business environment and attract skilled workers, address the sustainability of the agricultural sector, promote the circular economy and combat desertification, strengthen digital security governance, promote the supply of housing, streamline permitting procedures for renewable energy projects and reform the regulated retail electricity pricing mechanism.
The proposed investments cover €66 billion of new financial instruments to promote investments in the economy, including to support SMEs’ competitiveness and the green and digital transitions. They also cover €28 billion to further support the strategic industrial projects (so-called ‘PERTEs’) already outlined in the original plan, of which €8 billion to deliver on the REPowerEU objectives.
Spain’s request to modify its plan is based on its request to take up the €84 billion in available loans. A transformative REPowerEU chapter is also included covering both reforms and investments, aimed at further weaning the country off Russian fossil fuels. This amounts to more than €8 billion, covering more than €5 billion in REPowerEU and additional grants, almost €3 billion in loans from the existing allocation, and a transfer of €58 million of Spain’s share of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve. The proposed modifications to measures in the original plan factor in the effects of supply chain disruptions and the very high inflation experienced in 2022. They also follow the upward revision of Spain’s RRF grant allocation, from €69.6 billion to €77.2 billion, representing an increase of around €7.6 billion. This revision was part of the June 2022 update to the RRF grants allocation key.
All these changes make the submitted modified plan worth close to €164 billion.
The Commission will now assess the amendments put forward by Spain and evaluate whether the modified plan still fulfils the assessment criteria of the RRF Regulation. If the Commission’s assessment is positive, it will make a proposal for an amended Council Implementing Decision to reflect the changes to the Spanish plan. Member States will then have up to four weeks to endorse the Commission’s assessment.
More information on the process concerning REPowerEU chapters and the revision of recovery and resilience plans can be found in this Q&A.
Source – EU Commission