The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (Airef) concludes that the real impact of European funds on the Spanish economy is much lower than the information offered by the Ministry of Economy. Specifically, of the 608,000 beneficiaries today, companies, institutions and individuals have received transfers for 18.9 billion until the end of 2023.
The data contrasts with the assessment made by the Government on the evolution of the Recovery Plan, which does not specify the data of the amount finally transferred, but did highlight, during the time of the former first vice president, Nadia Calviño, the award of more than 35,000 million . This Monday the ministry led by Carlos Body updated the figure to 35.190 million that “have arrived” to the economy. The supervisor chaired by Cristina Herrero considers, however, that to know the relevance of community aid it is “essential” to resort to national accounting, which is where the Airef figure comes from.
The 18.9 billion transfers already received by Spanish successful bidders are divided into 2.5 billion registered in national accounting terms in 2021, 5.4 billion in 2022 and 11 billion in 2023. These figures are obtained from information from the European Commission on the Spanish GDP in both 2021 and 2022. That of 2023 is an estimate of the Tax Authority until Brussels offers its final data, scheduled for June.
The president of Airef defended today that the national accounting data is “the one that best approximates the degree of execution of the Recovery Plan.” “We were clear about it, given the lack of information in national accounting, we decided to launch this tool,” she added. Herrero has explained that Airef has developed its own system by resorting, first of all, to the original source of the data: whether they are the contracting platforms of the public sector or of up to seven autonomous communities. That is, the Tax Authority does not count the moment of the bidding but rather the moment of the transfer of the aid to the real economy. In the case of subsidies, the supervisor uses the national subsidies database.
The new Airef tool also disagrees, because it draws on different sources, from the official figure of tenders and subsidies resolved. The Tax Authority concludes that 32,052 million of European funds have been awarded. However, the Ministry of Economy estimates that at the end of March Spain has awarded the aforementioned amount of 35,190 million.
Despite these discrepant figures, Airef admits that when an award is made, which is what the Government accounts for, there is already a movement in the economy. “At that moment you start subcontracting, for example, and something moves, therefore,” Herrero acknowledged. However, he has concluded, “from the point of view of real execution, the most appropriate thing is national accounting, which values ??the investment in progress and records real activity.”
In terms of regional execution of European funds, Catalonia is the territory that is at the top of the national ranking taking into account the allocation of resources by the Generalitat and the city councils. Between the Government and the Catalan local corporations, 1,422 million have been formalized until March of this year, surpassing the Community of Madrid and the city councils of the central region, which have distributed 1,410 million. Valencian Community and its councils, with 1,159 million executed; and Andalusia and its municipalities, with 1,140 million, complete the top positions in the Airef table.
Andalusia is the autonomy with the most European funds granted in sectoral conferences that have not been allocated, 73%. Catalonia follows with 64%. Madrid has distributed almost half of the assigned Recovery Plan resources.
