Assessment of Spain's recovery, resilience and transformation plan

Subject: Assessment of Spain's recovery, resilience and transformation plan

In its analysis of Spain's recovery, resilience and transformation plan, the Commission has given the country an intermediate mark (B) out of three possible grades, judging that the plan has some shortcomings or problems.

The Commission states in this analysis that ‘[c]ost estimates for most of the measures in the plan are deemed reasonable.’

The Commission further points out, in in the working document accompanying its proposal for approval of the plan, that ‘the methodology used is not sufficiently well explained and the link between the justification and estimated costs is not sufficiently clear to deem that the costs are reasonable’.

1. Which are the measures whose cost estimates have been deemed to be unreasonable? How much money do these measures involve?

2. How will these shortcomings be remedied? How long will it take to remedy them?

Answer given by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis on behalf of the European Commission (3 November 2021)

1. In line with Article 19 (3) of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) Regulation (1), the Commission assessed whether the justification provided by the Member States on the amount of the estimated total cost of the plan is in line with the RRF Annex (point 2.9): reasonable, plausible, commensurate and additional to other EU financing.

Overall, Spain has submitted extensive evidence of more than 2 200 files covering approximately 25 000 pages of documentation. Based on the information and evidence provided by Spain, for the majority of measures, the cost has been deemed reasonable and plausible to a high extent. In a minority of cases, the information and evidence provided were assessed as reasonable and plausible to a medium or low extent. The plan was hence rated with a B on the costing criterion. It must be underlined that the plans of the other Member States so far assessed have also been rated with a B for costing.

2. The RRF is a performance-based funding instrument. The total financial contribution is determined based on the maximum financial allocation and on the estimate of the total cost of the Member State’s recovery and resilience plan at the point of submission. Disbursements are made based on the satisfactory fulfilment of the agreed milestones and targets up to the end of August 2026. If milestones and targets are not satisfactorily fulfilled, no payment or only a partial payment will be made. With regard to the above, no shortcomings on costing need to be remedied, as the total estimated costs of the plan have been deemed reasonable and plausible, in line with the principle of cost efficiency and commensurate to the expected national economic and social impact.

⋅1∙ Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility. | | ( | | )