Co-investment Fund (FOCO) is the name of the new aid vehicle that the Government has created, as stated in the addendum to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, to encourage foreign investment in strategic sectors and projects such as those linked to the green energies, digital transformation, sustainable mobility, biotechnology or sustainable agriculture. The fund is approved with an endowment of 2,000 million euros and will be managed by the public company Cofides, which will execute it “primarily through capital co-investments with foreign investors, both public and private, who must provide an investment, at least, equivalent to that of FOCO.
On the other hand, the provision of the financing line for SMEs and small export projects is expanded by 100 million from the Fund for the Internationalization of Companies.
In the energy field, the milestones for the processing of new renewable projects are modified, in line with the Brussels guidelines. The new auctions reduce the weight of the economic offer and include, with a maximum weight of 30%, qualitative criteria related to the project’s contribution to environmental sustainability, the impact on the economic and social development of the implementation area and other aspects that improve the integration of renewables in the electrical system. At the same time, the processing period for renewable projects is extended from five to eight years to avoid tensions in the value chain and promote an orderly incorporation of new facilities to meet the national objectives set for 2030. According to sources from the Ministry of Energy Transition, the deadline is not open. “Promoters must publish binding information about the semester and the deadlines in which they will launch their projects,” they comment. The maximum processing period for offshore wind farms and hydroelectric pumps becomes nine years.
