The Government of Spain and the European Commission (EC) have ratified Spain's Association Agreement 2021-2027, a strategic document that sets out the main lines of action and investment priorities for all the European funds that make up the Multiannual Financial Framework, and which will open up investment opportunities for all the territories, promoting a change in the production model.
The funds that make up this agreement are the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFF) and the Just Transition Fund (FTJ).
To this effect, Spain has a total financial allocation of EU aid for this period of €36.68 billion for all instruments. This agreement is complementary to the objectives and milestones set out in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), which drives the transformation of the country's productive model
On 18 November last year, the EC approved the Association Agreement, and today it was signed at a ceremony held at the Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art in Cáceres, attended by the Minister for Treasury and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, the EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, and the President of the Regional Government of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara.
In this regard, the Spanish Executive and the European Commission have today signed a joint declaration to materialise the signing of the Association Agreement.
At the event, the minister stressed the importance of "building together" a European Union that is "capable of facing the challenges of the 21st century, which are a just ecological transition to a sustainable and circular economy, with a secure digital transformation, and a strong social policy that promotes decent living conditions for all, with gender equality policies so that women can contribute all their talent and capacity".
Montero hopes that this Association Agreement will open "a new window of opportunity for the modernisation of the country, for its transformation and adaptation to the challenges of tomorrow". To this end, he considers that this volume of resources will allow the transformation of the production model to be promoted to allow the desired energy transition, hand in hand with renewable energies, where he highlighted Extremadura's leadership in solar thermal and photovoltaic energy.
The Minister also recalled that this agreement is complementary to the programme of reforms and investments included in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. María Jesús Montero highlighted the good pace of deployment of the plan throughout the country, citing Extremadura as an example, with close to €1 billion committed, adding the amounts of all the administrations.
Meeting with young people and visit to the CCMI
Afterwards, María Jesús Montero, Elisa Ferreira and Guillermo Fernández Vara held a meeting with young people from secondary schools and the university in Extremadura who have participated in European projects in the 2014-2020 period in the Extremadura region.
After the meeting with the students, the representatives of the EC, the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Function and the Regional Government of Extremadura visited the Jesús Usón Centre for Minimally Invasive Surgery (CCMI), dedicated to pre-clinical research, training and technology transfer in the field of health, especially in minimally invasive surgery.
The Association Agreement
Of this €36.68 billion, €35.56 billion correspond to EU cohesion policy funds, where Spain is the third largest beneficiary for the period 2021-2027, behind only Poland and Italy. This allocation is split into €23.4 billion from the ERDF, €11.3 billion from the ESF+ and €869 million from the JTF. In addition to these amounts, a total of €1.12 billion has been allocated to Spain from the EMFF.
This investment is organised around five main policy areas, where support for research, digitalisation, support for SMEs, energy efficiency, green transition and social investment are particularly relevant:
- Policy Objective 1 will have around €8.3 billion of European support to strengthen research, support businesses and encourage the digitisation of our economy.
- Policy Objective 2 allocates over €9.9 billion to improving energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment, actions to adapt to climate change, the implementation of a circular economy model and a focus on biodiversity.
- Policy Objective 3 has an allocation of €1.2 billion, which focuses on developing rail corridors, ensuring rail accessibility to ports of general interest, supporting the use of clean vehicles and improving public transport services.
- Within Policy Objective 4, social investment is of particular relevance during the current period, with a focus on employment, education, vocational training, inclusion and the fight against poverty and child poverty. This translates into €12.3 billion of aid for social cohesion under PO4.
- Last, Policy Objective 5 sets out European funding for urban and non-urban development actions, through designing integrated investment programmes amounting to over €2.1 billion.
The result of all the above is this Association Agreement, which consolidates the transformation of the production model, initiated with the Recovery Plan, towards a modern, competitive, sustainable, resource-efficient and climate-neutral economy. It will also serve to provide a support and protection network for families and the most vulnerable productive framework.
On the basis of the strategic lines defined in the agreement, the programmes financed with these funds are expected to be approved in the near future, specifying the types of actions to be financed, in accordance with the following structure:
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