The recovery fund launched in 2021 to boost the European economy has passed its halfway point and is entering a “critical stage” in which it is necessary to get its act together, the European Commission warned this Wednesday.
The bottom line is that there are still things to do: Brussels urges governments to accelerate the adoption of reforms and investments linked to their national plans, because an extension beyond its planned expiration date, 2026, is unlikely due to the complexity of agreeing. its extension.
“The execution of all the reforms and investments included in the plans must be accelerated,” summarizes the report that reviews the deployment, presented at a press conference by the economic vice president of the Community Executive, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni. . “The recovery fund has just under three years of life left and in many ways the second half of its life will be more complicated than the first as the investments reach a critical stage,” said the Italian.
Both have asked to focus on execution and not on possible battles to stretch deadlines. Furthermore, Dombrovskis recalled that some Member States are “behind” the implementation schedule provided for in their plans, so they will have to “make up” for lost ground. This is the case of Spain, which should have received the fourth payment of 10,000 million in December, but the tranche is still in the evaluation phase in Brussels awaiting the approval of the unemployment benefit reform.
Although it began as the country at the forefront of the anti-crisis fund, Spain has recently been surpassed by Italy and Portugal, which have already received the fourth disbursement of their plans and in the case of Rome has already requested the fifth payment.
All in all, the report places Spain as the third country that will benefit the most from the fund, with an expected increase in GDP of 3.5 percentage points compared to a scenario without a recovery plan, above the 1.4 points that are expected on average in the EU and only surpassed by Greece (4.5 points) and Croatia (4 points).
The Spanish recovery plan must make it possible to mobilize up to 163 billion euros until 2026 in loans and subsidies. Until now, the State has received around 37,000 million euros in three payments and is awaiting the fourth of 10,021 million euros mentioned above.
