After receiving several requests from the European Commission, the Government revealed on Friday afternoon the list that it has hidden for months: that of the 100 largest beneficiaries of European funds. Brussels wants all States to send it and Spain has been one of the last states to do so.
The result is that, according to an official statement from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, 61% of the largest recipients are from the public sector itself, especially city councils and public companies. The state group Adif is the first beneficiary with almost half of the funds awarded to the first hundred, exceeding 2.5 billion. The Ministry of Transportation itself follows with 307 million and the third is the state cybersecurity institute Incibe with 171 million. The first private company appears in eighth place. It is Power Holdco, the one controlled by Seat for the battery gigafactory, with 97.5 million awarded.
The Ministries themselves also appear in the hundred of the main awardees. On the other hand, only 39% are private companies in this important indicator of the so-called Recovery and Transformation Plan of Spain. Among the 100, 5.1 billion have been awarded, which is 14% of the funds received so far by Spain.
According to the statement from the Department headed by Nadia Calviño, “these data reflect the great capillarity of the deployment of the Recovery Plan. There are already more than 500,000 projects financed with an investment of 30,000 million euros in calls for aid and tenders resolved.” The Ministry highlights that, although they are not the majority, “forty private companies are on the list of the 100 largest recipients of funds, extracted as of October 20 from the comprehensive system for monitoring and managing the milestones and objectives of the Plan (CoFFEE)” .
He also emphasizes that “in the field of sustainable mobility, the investment by the State of nearly 2,500 million allocated to ADIF for the modernization of conventional and high-speed railway infrastructure stands out; the more than 400 million euros received by 30 City Councils for urban mobility projects and creation of low-emission zones” Among them, the Madrid City Council is the largest recipient with 65.6 million euros, followed by Zaragoza (59.46 million) and Alicante (40.55) .
It must be taken into account that the Ministry has decided to leave the autonomous communities off the list of 100 largest beneficiaries. According to its statement, “the list does not include the allocation to the Autonomous Communities of nearly 24,500 million euros for investment management within their scope of powers, among which are those for the creation of 0-3 year education places and of Vocational Training, renewal of technological equipment in hospitals, aid for the expansion of MOVES III electric vehicles, employment policies, complementary R&D and science programs, or the promotion of the cultural industry”.
The European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, had requested the list for October 15 at the latest, but the First Vice President for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, claimed that they were still working on its preparation after questions from MEPs Isabel Benjumea ( PP) and Eva Poptcheva (Citizens).
To try not to give the impression that the funds are being a bounty for the public sector, the Ministry has decided to add a list of the 50 companies that have won the most competitions. «Thus, the temporary joint ventures (UTEs) of Totana (152 million euros) and CAF (134 million euros) lead the list of the main companies awarded and beneficiaries of subsidies, followed by Ferrovial Construction (125 million euros) and the technological solutions group Thales Spain (119.7 million euros)”, describes the Ministry. “They are followed by the UTE Canal de Acceso (105 million euros) and Sacyr-Cavosa-Taboada y Ramos (102 million euros) or the Irizar automotive group (83.6 million euros),” he adds.
Economía maintains that “at the halfway point of the Plan, the ambitious reform program has practically been completed and cruising speed has been reached in the execution of investments, with a pace similar to that of last year.” It follows that it would take two years “at cruising speed”, according to this official version.