Delays in calls for proposals and invitations to tender for major strategic projects in Spain

Subject: Delays in calls for proposals and invitations to tender for major strategic projects in Spain

Spain’s strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation (‘PERTE’) were intended as the country’s flagship initiatives to attract investment from the EU recovery funds. However, no legal basis, calls for proposals or invitations to tender have yet been published for these projects.

In statements to various media outlets, the Spanish Government has blamed this delay on EU state aid rules and affirmed that it is negotiating with the Commission to make them more flexible.

In the light of the above:

1. Is the delay in the calls for proposals and invitations to tender for PERTE projects in Spain attributable to EU state aid rules, as the Spanish Government claims?

2. Is there sufficient leeway for these EU rules to be flexible enough to make Spain’s recovery and resilience plan, as originally designed, sufficiently attractive to encourage businesses to take part?

3. Does Royal Decree-Law 36/2020 of 30 December 2020, which the Commission must assess as one of the measures the Spanish Government promised for the first tranche of funding, successfully overcome these bureaucratic obstacles?

Answer given by Executive Vice-President Vestager on behalf of the European Commission (25 January 2022)

The Commission is not aware of delays due to EU State aid rules in the implementation of the Spanish Strategic Projects for the Economic Recovery and Transformation (‘PERTEs’).

The Commission provided Member States with guidance (1) on state aid issues in national recovery and resilience plans (RRP), including on how measures can be designed to be free of state aid or exempted from the notification requirement. The Commission has also established a system of priority treatment for notifiable RRP measures.

On 5 November 2021, Spain notified to the Commission one aid measure to support the PERTE on electric and connected vehicles. Upon completion of the notification on 3 December 2021, the Commission approved the measure on 9 December 2021, well within the deadline.

The Commission considers that the current state aid rules provide sufficient flexibility to enable the successful implementation of recovery and resilience plans, including of Spain, while preserving effective competition in the Single Market.

For example, the Temporary Framework for state aid measures to support the economy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak, as last amended on 18 November 2021, provides specific possibilities to enable Member States to put in place support measure to facilitate the recovery process.

Milestone 157 of the Spanish RRP provides for the entry into force of Royal Decree Law 36/2020 (‘the Decree’) by Q1 2021.

The Decree modernises the internal functioning of the Spanish public administration to facilitate the implementation of the RRP. A copy of the Decree and other evidence has been provided to demonstrate that the Decree entered into force and its content and objective are in line with the requirements of the milestone.

According to the Commission’s preliminary assessment, and on the basis of the justification provided, the milestone has been considered as satisfactorily fulfilled for the purposes of the first payment request made by Spain on 11 November 2021.

⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/competition-policy/state-aid/coronavirus_es | | ( | | )