Almost a month and a half late, the Ministry of Economy yesterday published the list of the first 100 beneficiaries of the Next Generation European recovery funds. As expected, the ranking is topped by public companies such as the infrastructure manager Adif. Of the private companies, Ferrovial, the French Thales and the German Volkswagen stand out.
The construction company Ferrovial – belonging to the Del Pino family – appears as the main awardee of tenders called within the framework of the recovery plan, with 125 million euros. There is the circumstance that the company moved its headquarters from Spain to Holland this year, a fact that caused great discomfort in the Spanish Government.
Another of the private companies that has obtained the most resources is the French company Thales, with nearly 120 million. For its part, the battery factory that Volkswagen will install in Sagunto has obtained almost 98 million in aid from the European recovery funds.
In reality, the ministry has published two lists, as can be seen in the attached information. In the first list, the 100 directly benefited entities appear, which is where Adif or Volkswagen are listed. The second list is that of the winners of the largest tenders and it is where Ferrovial or Thales appear.
The 100 most important recipients of European funds obtained a total of 5.1 billion euros in public aid, which is equivalent to nearly 14% of the total resources obtained by Spain. Forty private companies are included in the aforementioned list of one hundred that shows the data corresponding to October 20 of the comprehensive system for monitoring and managing the milestones and objectives of the plan.
The first three places in the ranking are for infrastructure manager Adif-Alta Velocidad, Adif and for the Ministry of Transport. Economia explained in a statement that “in the field of sustainable mobility, the investment by the State of nearly 2,500 million” for the modernization of both conventional and high-speed rail infrastructure stands out.
The councils – about thirty, which does not include Barcelona – have taken more than 400 million for urban mobility projects and the creation of low-emission zones, among other concepts. According to Economia, “70% of Spanish municipalities have received funds from the Recovery Plan”.
The Ministry of the Economy also highlighted the importance of the aid included in the Automotive Perte, despite the fact that it was partially deserted. In Spain, 30% of all calls have been abandoned. In the automotive chapter, in addition to Volkswagen and its Valencian battery plant, the 55 million for Mercedes Benz or the nearly 30 million for Stellantis and Seat stand out. QEV Technologies – which is one of the companies that operates in the former Nissan facilities in the Free Zone – has another 22 million recorded. QEV turned over 15 million in 2022 and hopes to reach 30 million this year.
In the digital field, there are investments of around 500 million, intended for the reinforcement of cyber security, the improvement of digitization and the promotion of SMEs, connectivity, the modernization of public administrations and the strengthening of the digital industry, explains the Ministry of Economy.
In this segment appears Red.es, the National Institute of Cybersecurity – Incibe, the Chamber of Commerce of Spain in its support for the digitization of SMEs. The main program they manage is the Digital Kit, intended to help the digitization of companies.
In this technological field, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-National Supercomputing Center stands out, with an allocation of 21 million. “It is a clear example of the importance of investments in science, innovation and new technologies, such as quantum technologies,” said the ministry.
Balearia Eurolínias Marítimas (12 million), Técnicas Reunidas (1.5 million), Globalia Handling (6.5 million), VTG (37.5 million), Faurecia (8.3 million) and Gestamp Bizkaia (5.4 million). And among the main awardees of tenders are the temporary unions of companies (UTE) of Totana (152 million) and CAF (134 million).
So far, Spain has received transfers from the European Union to the value of 37,000 million euros after the fulfillment of 121 milestones and objectives.