CEOE defends greater flexibility in the European framework of State aid and in meeting milestones associated with the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan; a boost to the strategic autonomy of Spain; tax incentives charged to European funds; more administrative agility and reduction of bureaucracy; and improved access for SMEs and the self-employed to European recovery funds.
This was stated by the general secretary of CEOE, José Alberto González-Ruiz, at the meeting held this Monday with the representatives of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee to monitor the deployment of European funds in Spain.
González-Ruiz, who was accompanied by the head of CEOE’s European Projects Office, Luis Socías, stressed that the European recovery funds are a historic opportunity for the European Union, in general, and for Spain, in particular, since it was the country that suffered the most from the impact of the pandemic, with a drop in GDP of 10.8% in 2020.
For this reason, in the current phase of execution, “it is important to accelerate the arrival of funds to companies, focusing on facilitating SMEs and the self-employed,” he added.
maximum flexibility
In this sense, he pointed out that of the 37,000 million euros that Spain has already received in subsidies, only 23,300 million have been deployed in calls and tenders, of which 45% have gone to the private sector. In order to speed up the arrival of funds to the real economy, he has defended the role of PERTEs and, in this sense, has advocated increasing their publication and resolution rate, especially in sectors linked to Spain’s strategic autonomy.
In this line, he has emphasized that there is a real public-private collaboration in the design of the large calls, more access facilities for SMEs and the self-employed and less bureaucracy, eliminating procedures and rigidities that are not required by the EU.
It has also claimed the need to continue advancing in the publication of data on the arrival of funds to the real economy, in the style of countries such as Portugal.
In his presentation to the members of the European delegation, the general secretary of CEOE has also raised the need to make some of the investment milestones of the Recovery Plan more flexible so that they can start before 2026 and that its completion can also be extended several years.
Respect for already allocated funds
In the same way, he has defended a more flexible framework of the European state aid, especially with regard to the strategic capacities of Spain and Europe. Above all, after the law that promotes green subsidies announced by the US.
A change that must be made “with full respect for the internal market” and where, in any case, it is also essential “that the amounts assigned to each country within the framework of the Next Generation be respected, without prejudice to establishing a European Sovereign Fund” .
González-Ruiz has also explained to the MEPs the proposals that CEOE has sent to the Government for the Addendum to the Recovery Plan. Among them, making the conditions of access of companies to the calls more flexible, strengthening collaboration with the financial sector to ensure more speed and capillarity of the aid or incorporating tax incentives charged to European funds.
Likewise, CEOE is committed to launching a Talent and Employment PERTE, creating a Global Strategy for Qualification and Training, improving the efficiency of the public sector and designing a more efficient tax system.