It is the formal start of the second part of the European recovery plan, the addendum that contains 83,000 million euros in credits. Of this amount, 40,000 will be channeled through the Official Credit Institute (ICO) and the first loans should reach recipients during the second quarter of this year.
These are credits intended for companies, SMEs, freelancers, emerging companies, companies in the audiovisual sector and households. “The objective is that they “serve as support for companies in a framework in which the credit conditions due to monetary policy are particularly tougher”, stated the Minister of the Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, after the Council of Ministers on Tuesday that approved the framework for the deployment of these funds.
To try to adapt to the needs of the beneficiaries, the financing will be carried out with various instruments. On the one hand, half of the funds will be channeled through the banks, taking advantage of their capillarity to reach SMEs and companies of all sizes. The rest will be distributed through direct loans to companies by the ICO and acquisition of bonds and capital investments. These loans can be formalized until August 2026.
The deployment will be organized in five lines of funding. The lion’s share goes to the ICO-Green Line, with 22,000 million for loans to households and companies that develop energy efficiency, renewables, water management and adaptation to climate change projects. This includes all kinds of projects, from the smallest, such as the purchase of an electric car in the case of a self-employed worker, to the decarbonisation of industry.
A second line is the ICO – Businesses and entrepreneurs, with 8,150 million to finance the growth and resilience of companies, which will focus especially on SMEs. Within this section there are 1,000 million specifically allocated to the tourism sector, to develop new products or services, innovations that improve efficiency and investments to improve the category of establishments.
The third facility, the ICO-Promotion, is intended to promote social rental housing, with credits for promoters and builders. The last two funds are the Next Tech, with an endowment of 4,000 million, for emerging companies in disruptive technologies and the Audiovisual Hub, with 1,712 million, with incentives for both film and television projects as well as video games and visual effects.
These last two funds, the Next Tech and the Audiovisual Hub, will be managed by the future Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), which the Minister of Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá, announced this week would be created. It is already known as Sepi digital and should be launched in two or three months.
