Subject: Exclusion of Basque roads from the recovery plan in Spain
The Spanish Government has excluded Basque roads from the distribution of the EUR 700 million provided by the sixth component of its recovery plan. In accordance with the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country, the maintenance and construction of roads in the Basque Country fall within the competence of the Autonomous Community. The failure to include this network in the allocation of EUR 343 million to upgrade tunnels gave rise to a complaint from the institutions of that autonomous community. The aim is to call for a review and to be included in the distribution of the remaining EUR 300 million to combat noise pollution from the use of these roads. Unfortunately, this exclusion was replicated despite the measures taken by the Basque Country to prevent it.
With the above in mind:
1. Does the Commission consider this type of dysfunction to be compatible with the partnership principle enshrined in Regulation (EU) 2021/241?
2. Does the Commission consider that ownership of an infrastructure can be a reason for exclusion under the recovery and resilience plan?
3. Does the Commission consider that the existing checks are sufficient to validate the multilevel dialogue that must be carried out before national plans are approved?
Submitted:28.6.2023
Answer given by Mr Gentiloni on behalf of the European Commission
(16 November 2023)
The distribution and coordination of competences between the different levels of government is an internal matter for Spain, on which the Commission cannot comment.
Nonetheless, the Commission encourages Spain to keep engaging with regional and local authorities to support the implementation of investments and reforms that are part of the Spanish Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) (1).
The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) (2) is a performance-based instrument, with payments being made based on the satisfactory fulfilment of milestones and targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision (CID).
Provided that the requirements in the CID are respected, it is up to each Member State to decide on the actions contributing to fulfil the milestones and targets in the CID.
In Spain, sectoral conferences, convening the regions and the central government, are the mechanism where representatives of central and regional governments competent for a given area meet to cooperate.
The RRF Regulation (3) requires Member States to provide a summary of the consultation process that took place for the design of the RRPs.
The Spanish RRP included such a summary of the outreach efforts that were carried out, in accordance with the national legal framework. Spain carried out a consultation process with regional authorities and other stakeholders, and several sectoral conferences discussed relevant measures of the plan.
The positive assessment of the Spanish plan was endorsed by the Council on 13 July 2021. The implementation of the plan should continue to involve the regional and local authorities.
1 ∙ ⸱ Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia Gobierno de España — https://planderecuperacion.gob.es/
2 ∙ ⸱ https://commission.europa.eu/business-economy-euro/economic-recovery/recovery-and-resilience-facility_en
3 ∙ ⸱ Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R0241).