The Government will activate a new financing fund with soft loans, at reduced interest, from European funds, which will be available to the autonomous communities to undertake sustainable investments. It is one of the main novelties of the addendum to the Recovery Plan that the Ministry of Economy plans to send to the European Commission in the coming days. A second phase of community funds in which the Executive has set itself the objective of obtaining loans worth 84,000 million and another 7,700 million in transfers, thus completing the more than 160,000 million in aid planned until 2026, 12% of GDP, to which must be added 2,600 million from the RePower EU plan.
The first vice president, Nadia Calviño, estimates that the execution of the already approved plan and the addendum could increase the gross domestic product up to 3 percentage points on average each year until 2031. The objective of the Executive, therefore, is that the new package of aid, in the form of a package of additional transfers and the block of loans, contributes to promoting "the strategic industrialization of Spain in the energy, agri-food, industrial, technological and digital fields", as explained by Nadia Calviño after the fifth meeting of the Commission for recovery, transformation and resilience held this Tuesday in Moncloa.
The Government will make available to the regional executives the so-called "Fund for the Autonomous Communities", newly created, with an initial item of 20,000 million that will be complementary to the regional financing fund, in credits with favorable conditions.
Loans from Brussels offer financing at a lower interest rate than that obtained by the Public Treasury and with longer repayment terms. Specifically, 30-year loans will be put into circulation, with a 10-year grace period to repay the principal, at the interest rate in force when the European Commission issues debt. That rate is 50 basis points below the Spanish 10-year bond. The interest will vary, therefore, every six months, when Brussels complements its debt issuance windows. The management cost will be the essential minimum, indicate sources from the Ministry of Economy.
The autonomies will be able to directly access these credits to, in turn, be able to offer financing to the private sector and continue promoting public investments that complement those already facilitated by the transfers in progress. The objective is to focus investments in the regions on social housing, sustainable transport, competitiveness in tourism, care, trade and SMEs.
The 84,000 million in loans are, like the transfers, linked to a series of milestones and objectives that Spain must meet in order for the European Commission to disburse the money. A part of these demands will therefore have to be met by the next government that comes out of the polls in the elections scheduled for the end of 2023.
The Government will also make available to SMEs and the self-employed a fund of 15,000 million in loans that will be channeled through the Official Credit Institute (ICO). There will be a new line, the green ICO, aimed at investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and circular economy.
The second phase of the Recovery Plan, which aims to mobilize all the European funds assigned to Spain, specifies that the aforementioned 7,700 million transfers that will be requested in this addendum will be invested in reinforcing the eleven ongoing Pertes. There will be, in total, 26,300 million more, between credits and non-reimbursable transfers, which will go to strategic projects already activated.
Calviño has also confirmed the launch of a new industrial decarbonization part. A total of 3,100 million, between transfers and loans, which will go to the reconversion of different productive sectors. Likewise, up to 120 million euros of the transfers will be allocated to reinforce two horizontal programs to expedite the execution of the plan's investments: one of micro-credentials, to promote the training and qualification of workers in skills necessary for the deployment of the Perte, and the other for technical assistance.
