The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce warned the Government yesterday that Spain could lose 25,952 million of the European funds already assigned due to the delay in carrying out the projects. Without these funds, “the Spanish and Catalan economies would lose the opportunity to execute non-refundable resources that the EU has made available.”
For this reason, the Chamber urges the Government to accelerate direct transfers so that in 2023 the objective of reaching 69,000 million can be achieved. Of that figure, the State could still request and receive 25,952 million already assigned. It does not refer to the execution of projects, but to the allocation of resources for a specific project or a transfer to an autonomous community or a municipality. It is then the communities or municipalities that tender and execute the projects.
This is one of the main conclusions of the monographic Next Generation EU Fund: execution and evaluation, which analyzes the progress in the use of funds by the State and the Generalitat.
“The rate of mobilization of funds by the State is not being as desired,” says the institution directed by Mònica Roca. “It is worrying that the funds made (recognized obligations) by the State in 2022 were lower than those of 2021 and only 69% of the budgeted credit was met,” she adds.
On the other hand, it is verified that the rate of mobilization of the funds until April 2023 is being similar to that of last year, although the expected budget that should be executed this year is 24% higher.
More than a third of the funds coming from Europe are transferred to the communities. But that has an added problem: “resources from Europe must overcome at least three levels of decision and management, making it difficult for them to reach the real economy,” warns the Chamber.
Among the causes of the low use, the Chamber highlights the slow execution of the Perte and the low degree of realization of the funds assigned by the Ministry of Industry.
The Perte, which concentrate a very relevant part of the funds, are still in an initial phase and their degree of execution is very low. At the end of 2022, only calls for an amount equivalent to 29% of the funds to be allocated before December 2023 had been resolved. Given that 52% of the public investment planned through these projects must meet this deadline, it is The activation of the Perte for renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and storage, as well as those for electric vehicles and agri-food, is especially relevant, according to the study. For the part of microelectronics and semiconductors there is more time, until the end of 2026, although it should begin to be defined already taking into account the investment it represents: 12,250 million.
