The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of Spain arrives this Monday, August 31, at the deadline set in the community calendar for the milestones and objectives committed to be met. Nevertheless, the Executive has until September 30 to formally register the request for the last tranches of the assigned European funds.
So far, Spain has received 78 billion in six payments, 76.5% of the 102 billion awarded, after the validation of 338 milestones and objectives.
The seventh and final payment of the 'Next Generation EU' European funds remains to be requested, which the Government must claim before the end of September. This tranche will require the evaluation of 148 milestones and objectives to access 21.462 billion euros in transfers and 4.4 billion euros in loans.
With the green light for this last disbursement, Spain will have received more than 100 billion euros from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism before the end of 2026. In this final phase, three milestones linked to the sixth payment will be reformulated through a technical addendum, with the intention of specifying their content before incorporating them into the request for the seventh and final tranche.
The sixth payment, made this August, amounted to 6.234 billion euros (4.962 billion in transfers, including 265 million pending from the fifth payment, and 1.008 billion in loans), after certifying the compliance of 73 additional milestones and objectives.
TWO OUT OF EVERY THREE EUROS FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL TRANSITION
According to the Government, two out of every three euros of the Plan have been directed towards the green and digital transition, and the beneficiaries of the Next Generation funds already total 1.5 million, of which 68% are SMEs and microenterprises.
In detail, 921,962 SMEs and self-employed individuals have received aid from the Digital Kit in 90% of Spanish municipalities, while 23,429 SMEs and self-employed individuals have accessed the Consulting Kit for specialized advice services in digitalization and 54,676 SMEs and self-employed individuals have benefited from the financial guarantees of CERSA.
Furthermore, the Executive emphasizes that, thanks to the Plan, 400,000 new Vocational Training places have been created, more than 25% in digital fields, "which have enabled the improvement of employability and that Spain now has the lowest youth unemployment rate since 2008."
At the same time, the Crea y Crece Law approved within the framework of the Plan has driven the gross creation rate of companies to increase by 50%, up to 13,000 per month, while the Startups Law has multiplied the development of the innovative ecosystem by 2.3.
AN UNPRECEDENTED REACTION AFTER THE COVID BLOW
The expansion of Covid-19 since March 2020 caused a severe impact on the global economy and, particularly, on the Spanish economy, which is very exposed to sectors like tourism, heavily hit by mobility restrictions and the drop in demand.
The collapse of the Spanish Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which exceeded 10% in 2020, posed an unprecedented challenge in recent history and led to an economic policy response different from previous crises, both nationally and in the European and international arenas.
In July 2020, the European Council agreed on an extraordinary instrument to address the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Initially endowed with 750 billion and dubbed 'Next Generation EU', the EU launched the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, with transfers and loans, so that member states could boost post-Covid recovery and leverage resources to modernize their economies in the face of the challenges of digitalization and the green transition.
In the Spanish case, the initial allocation was 160 billion euros for the period 2021-2026, distributed almost equally between about 80 billion in transfers and another 80 billion in loans.
However, the final volume of credits requested by the Government has been reduced to about 21.5 billion euros —around 25% of the loans initially available— given that Spain is currently financing itself in the markets at lower rates than those offered by the EU.
The first projections pointed to a Recovery Plan effect exceeding 2% GDP growth during the 4 or 5 years of validity, and by 2030 that boost could add up to three additional GDP points in total.
According to the latest data published by the Government on the public platform 'Elisa', by June 30, more than 95 billion would have been called, almost 80 billion assigned, and more than 70 billion resolved.
"Spain was for the second consecutive year the developed economy with the highest growth in 2025 and again the economic engine of the EU. It doubles the growth of the eurozone and contributes 40% of the growth and almost half of the job creation in the eurozone. Thanks to the Recovery Plan, Spain is today the European economy that has grown the most since pre-COVID levels, with an advance of 8.5%, which represents 40% more than the eurozone average and 22 times more than Germany," highlights the Government.
LABOR AND PENSION REFORMS, THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL
The Recovery Plan incorporated a broad agenda of investments and structural reforms, designed to mutually reinforce each other and achieve four major goals: to move towards a greener, more digital, more socially and territorially cohesive, and more egalitarian Spain.
Among the reforms, the most discussed and complex to approve have been the labor and pension reforms. In the case of the former, an error in the voting of a PP deputy allowed the Government to pass the regulation by a single vote.
At the same time, an investment effort has been deployed through instruments such as the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (Perte), based on public-private collaboration to modernize key sectors and bolster growth.
AFTER THE PLAN: THE SOVEREIGN FUND 'SPAIN GROWS'
With the horizon of the end of the European recovery funds 'Next Generation EU', the sovereign fund 'Spain Grows' will take over, with the goal of mobilizing 120 billion euros in housing, energy, digitalization, artificial intelligence, reindustrialization, circular economy, infrastructure, water and sanitation, and security.
This vehicle will have an initial allocation of 10.5 billion euros from the Recovery Plan, but the objective is to activate 120 billion euros through private debt, with the participation of national and international investors.
The management will fall to the Official Credit Institute (ICO), which will co-invest with the private sector through loans, guarantees, and equity stakes, prioritizing areas considered strategic to raise productivity.
It is estimated that this base of 10.5 billion euros —from the European recovery plan— will strengthen the balance sheet of the Official Credit Institute (ICO), allowing it to mobilize around 60 billion directly.
Adding the financing provided by the entities and the banking system, it is estimated that the total investment capacity of the new sovereign fund will reach 120 billion, destined for housing, energy, digitalization, artificial intelligence, reindustrialization, circular economy, infrastructure, water and sanitation, and security.