Spain was the second-largest recipient of next-generation EU funds, designed to relaunch economies hardest hit by the pandemic. Brussels has allocated a total of 163,800 million euros to our country (79,854 subsidies and 83,160 loans), … Of which the government has not yet requested 57% ($93,000 million). And all this less than a year before the deadline – August 31 – to do so expires. Of those already appointed, according to data from the Intervention General of State Administration (IGAE), more than 67% (110,000 million) were not executed. “People have already lost confidence in them because they don’t see them,” laments the MEP. Isabel Benjomia (Madrid, 1982)Who denounces the delay and lack of transparency in the Moncloa Plan.
What happens to recovery funds?
It is Spain’s biggest missed opportunity due to the Pedro Sanchez government’s obsession with centralized, politicized and ideological management. Furthermore, he has shown an absolute inability to manage his own plan, and there’s the data. There are only nine months left until the deadline expires and the European Commission has been categorical in saying there will be no extension. Spain has a pending request – we are not talking about implementing what has been received – 25,000 million subsidies and 68,000 million loans through five pending requests in which it has been delaying one after another. Today, our country is one of the countries with the lowest absorption rate, 43.8%. A plan was not drawn up to think about Spain, but rather a plan was drawn up to think about Sanchez’s survival, and neither the autonomous communities nor the private sector were included.
You’re talking about delay. And also the lack of transparency?
Yes, because, with what they have received, they are not even able to implement everything. They do not want to tell us that there is no real implementation data for end beneficiaries since August 2021. What the government publishes through IGAE are just committed transfers and payments. However, if we take this data as a reference, we now have 67% of the allocated funds unimplemented. It is not only a matter of the inability to receive the money, but also the management of what has arrived with enormous uncertainty.
Europe hasn’t effectively taken sides, has it? A mission to Spain is pending.
The Committee publicly accepted that there was a transparency problem, but also said that it was the responsibility of States to implement this practice. In the Spanish case, the government decided, I think to cover up its inability, that it did not do so. The idea of undertaking a mission for each of the 27 member states was approved. The Spanish session was postponed due to the small number of representatives who had registered, but it was not cancelled. This is scheduled to take place in the fall of 2026. The important thing about these missions is that there are certain flaws in the design of Next in all countries, as there was no absolute requirement for transparency. I was in Italy this summer and what you see is the pace of implementation, the public-private collaboration that has taken place, the creation of an independent entity…
Should Spain have established the independent governing body you mentioned?
The People’s Party requested this at the time, but the government rejected it. He refused to have parliamentary oversight over the disbursement and implementation of funds. He did not want to take into account the priorities of the communities or the proposals of the private sector and created an office in Moncloa that designed (the plan) along with the treasury and the economy, and wanted to centralize it.
Just yesterday, El País announced Moncloa’s intention to waive a significant portion of the loans (about 75% of the loans). How many millions can remain in limbo? What do you know about this alleged addition that the government will negotiate with the Commission?
Based on the leak and at the expense of knowing the final content of the annex, the government will give up more than 60 thousand million euros, or approximately 40% of the total funds. He still does not clarify what adjustments he will make to avoid losing the remaining 25 thousand million euros. Through the usual propaganda story, the government wants to make us see that it is doing this for our own good, based on the supposed success of the Spanish economy. Ask the Spanish freelancers or SMEs who are missing out on access to this financing. It is a confirmation of the failure of their administration, as they are giving up this money because they cannot fulfill the commitments they themselves made with Europe.
“The socialists want the permanent next generation so that non-refundable money will continue to be sent to the United States because it is Sanchez’s way of survival.”
Choosing this path would relieve the pressure on the government of having to agree to the reforms it has committed to. The Junts’ break with the PSOE had effectively left them in limbo. Would you be willing to participate?
The government is presenting Brussels with a historic plan that it did not negotiate with us, even though we persistently asked to be part of it if it wanted our parliamentary support. I understand that he did not do so, as he was confident of the parliamentary majority. What we will not do now is agree to reforms that we do not believe are in Spain’s interests. The government will have to bear its responsibility.
“You see what Spain has done to it and, unfortunately, it has not made it a priority to make us more competitive or create more jobs or make social investment.”
What would it mean if the executive branch did not request this assistance?
It was a plan that was supposed to help the economy recover and make it more resilient and competitive. But one sees what Spain has done to it and, unfortunately, it has not made it a priority to make us more competitive or create more jobs or do social investment.
Sanchez even said this money is just another budget. Are you using this aid as a crutch to compensate for budget shortfalls?
This is what he said about using money for personal benefit. The government has survived without budgets because it has pumped in money that is used strictly for its own benefit and not for Spain’s. It’s not dangerous. What will happen when there is no money? Socialists always want a future generation, they want to keep issuing debt, and they want to keep sending money to the United States because that is the way for the Sánchez government to survive.