Subject: Radio Televisión Española and the Recovery and Resilience Facility
The Spanish Government has allocated over EUR 117 million in Recovery and Resilience Facility funding to the Spanish broadcasting company Radio Televisión Española (RTVE). This would make RTVE, a public entity, one of the main beneficiaries of those EU recovery funds.
The various projects RTVE has financed using those EU funds have not had the impact expected – they have actually been very controversial owing to breaches of regulatory requirements, the return of some of the funding, and the state of RTVE’s finances.
In light of the above:
1. Does the Commission know the total amount of EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funding that has been allocated to RTVE, the names of the companies subcontracted to carry out the projects, and how much money each subcontractor received? Does the Commission know how much progress was ultimately made on the projects?
2. Has the Spanish Government provided the Commission with an assessment of the various RTVE projects funded via the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the viewing figures, the airtime and the targets achieved?
Submitted: 7.2.2025
Joint answer given by President von der Leyen on behalf of the European Commission (6 May 2025)
The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is a performance-based programme. Member States put forward a Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), which includes a set of national reforms and investments and accompanying milestones and targets.
The assessment of these national recovery and resilience plans by the Commission is carried out in line with the criteria outlined in the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation (1).
In the context of payment requests, the Commission verifies the satisfactory fulfilment of the milestones and targets. Disbursements are made only if the milestones and targets established in the annex of the Council Implementing Decision approving the plan are fulfilled.
Based on public information available to the Commission, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) has received funding from Spain within the framework of the implementation of Target 292: Digital training for employment of the Council Implementing Decision approving the RRP.
The objective of this measure is to strengthen the digital skills of the employed (notably in the administration) and of the unemployed.
The target consists in providing training on digital skills of at least 150 hours to 300 000 people. The target falls under the ninth payment request.
This payment request is expected to be submitted by Spain in 2026. The Commission will assess the completion of the target at that time.
1 ∙ ⸱ https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10150-2021-ADD-1-REV-1/en/pdf | | ( | | )