Spain receives an additional €274.9 million from the 2022 tranche of REACT-EU. These resources will support the economic recovery of Spanish regions, help workers and jobseekers acquire skills necessary for the digital and green transition, and improve the access to and functioning of social systems.
€137 million are added to the Spanish operational programme of the Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) to provide food assistance and accompanying measures to the most vulnerable groups including people who left Ukraine due to the Russian aggression of the country.
The remaining resources, €137.9 million, are added to the European Social Fund programmes of eight Spanish regions:
- In Cantabria, €660,000 will help maintaining and creating new jobs, in particular by offering support to start-ups and programmes for vocational education and training.
- In Castilla y León, almost €12.7 million will support research contracts in universities and allow schools hiring more teachers. The funds will also improve health and social services by hiring more staff and purchasing medical and hygiene equipment. In addition, the funds will support social inclusion measures to help the most vulnerable groups.
- In Cataluña, €86.7 million will be mainly allocated to advance the digital and green transition of the region by supporting vocational education and training programmes that help people facing difficulties in finding employment.
- In Ceuta, €1 million will create jobs and provide support for start-ups by mitigating the impact of the pandemic, for instance by upskilling and reskilling the workforce through vocational education and training.
- In Galicia, €11.6 million will support self-employed workers, women and unemployed people. The funds will also improve public services to help unemployed people finding a job.
- On the Illes Balears, €9.8 million will help people keeping their jobs and promoting job creation through training, in particular for digital skills while also supporting health services fighting the pandemic by strengthening the sanitary system. The measures will also support vulnerable groups and address social exclusion.
- Melilla will receive €1.8 million to help unemployed people accessing the labour market through job creation and training. The funds will also ensure the resilient recovery of the economy by helping young people, the self-employed and entrepreneurs keeping their jobs.
- In País Vasco, €13.5 million will support investments in education as well as professional training programmes to ensure education continuity during the pandemic. To support the economic recovery, the funds will help creating and maintaining jobs for young people, self-employed people and entrepreneurs. The additional resources will also be invested in social inclusion measures and access to social systems, ensuring the protection of vulnerable groups. Finally these additional funds will help reinforcing the regional health system.
Background
Spain will receive in total €14.5 billion under REACT-EU to boost Spain’s recovery and to facilitate investments in the green and digital transition.
As part of NextGenerationEU, REACT-EU provides a top-up of €50.6 billion (in current prices) over the course of 2021 and 2022 to the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy programmes. Measures focus on supporting labour market resilience, jobs, small and medium-sized businesses and low-income families, as well as setting future-proof foundations for the green and digital transitions and a sustainable socio-economic recovery. REACT-EU entered into force on 24 December 2020.
The 2021 tranche of REACT-EU has already allocated €40 billion to help Member States recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
For More Information
Source – EU Commission