CEOE business leaders see a clear acceleration in how European funds are being allocated to investment projects, but they warn that more agility is needed to hit the targets that would make 2023 the year of the largest fund distribution in history for Spain. They stress the importance of easier access to these European funds for small and medium enterprises and self-employed professionals.
In the fourth Monitoring Report on Next Generation funds in Spain, issued this week, the CEOE notes that the lessons learned so far should be distilled and applied. Looking back at the year so far, one of the main recommendations centers on the missteps in the initial Perte VEC round, which took over six months to finalize and produced a minimum grant allocation of 793 million euros against a potential 2,975 million euros. Other delays stem from important calls in initiatives like Circular Economy and elements tied to the agri-food chain that have waited for critical decisions.
The CEOE highlights the need to streamline access for SMEs and the self-employed, turning the lessons from past calls into a driving factor for the Plan’s success. Reducing bureaucracy and boosting administrative agility are key, as is encouraging broader SME participation across multiple calls. The organization also calls for longer application windows, robust guarantees, and shared responsibility among the companies joining the same project. These improvements should be extended to the Circular Economy segment and the Agri-Food Chain, with a clear signal from the government to move in this direction.
calls
Official government data show that as of December 14, the total amount approved for European funds stood at 922 calls, with funding reaching 13.756,39 million euros. This figure accounts for roughly 23% of the subsidies allocated to Spain by the European Commission under Next Generation EU funds. The data also indicate that around 22,000 million euros in projects have been launched to date, distributed across 18,700 entities and 3,400 autonomous communities. Approximately 9,500 million euros has been allocated to the private sector, representing about 43% of the total.
Looking at the different sections, the government has published unresolved investments worth about 12,339 million euros, out of a total cap of 32,456.84 million euros allocated to strategic projects, which accounts for about 38% of the total budget. In the first quarter of 2023, there is anticipation of new calls for industrial lines that offer greater flexibility in guarantees for beneficiary companies, including a second industrial line for Perte VEC. Other anticipated calls include the Decarbonization Port project line, the third call for the Aviation Technological Program PTA, and the subsidy applications for the ERHA Port to support renewable energy sources.