A small number of recipients accumulate a good part of the tenders and subsidies from European funds for companies that have been awarded so far. Specifically, always excluding self-employed workers and individuals, more than 90% of the calls have gone to 10% of companies. Another fact: 1% of the companies, 1,540 recipients, accumulate 72% of the concessions. And one more fact: 0.1% of the call winners, 154 companies, have won 42% of the calls. These are the main conclusions of an investigation carried out by EsadeEcPol.
The report, signed by Manuel Hidalgo, Jorge Galindo and Javier Martínez, analyzes the details of the destination and the pace of execution of the 80,000 million that Spain has allocated in transfers today. To do this, the authors carry out a screening of the data offered in the calls for tenders and subsidies, as well as their concessions. After a filtering, purifying and elimination of duplicates process, EsadeEcPol offers a snapshot of the state of community aid as of January 31, 2024.
At the end of January 2024, the data from the report indicates that of the 80,000 million allocated, Spanish public administrations have managed to summon 70% of them, up to 56,344 million, and grant 41%, 32,925 million. The economic studies center warns that, with approximately three years remaining to close the execution of the European funds, Spain would have to accelerate the granting and awarding of the same “considerably” to take advantage of 100% of the aid.
Regarding the distribution by territory, according to data from EsadeEcPol, Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia lead the distribution of tenders and subsidies with more than 1,200 million awarded to each autonomous community. They are followed by Madrid and the Basque Country with more than 800 million. In per capita terms, the list is headed by the Basque Country, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, Castilla y León and La Rioja.
Another striking piece of information from the report is related to which sectors the subsidies and tenders from European funds have gone to. At the end of January, construction leads the distribution of aid, followed by commerce, and information and telecommunications.
Spain has already gone through a period of 37 months of execution of European funds and according to the conclusions of the report prepared by Hidalgo, Galindo and Fernández, it should step on the accelerator of the concessions to comply with the deadlines set by the European Commission, which is the end of the 2026.
