More than 60,000 companies have received a total of 7.1 billion from European funds between 2020 and April 2023, according to the analysis of recipient companies carried out by the Bank of Spain based on the published awards, a work signed by Eduardo Aguilar, Mario Alloza, Tamara de la Mata, Enrique Moral-Benito, Iñigo Portillo-Pampin and David Sarasa-Flores. The examination identifies that tenders linked to community aid have gone mainly to large companies.
In total, 1,805 companies have been, during this period of time, awarded tenders for European funds and 58,355 companies have received smaller subsidies. In aggregate terms, these companies have been beneficiaries of 4,069 million in tenders and 3,032 million euros in subsidies until the document's cutting date, in April.
In terms of amount granted, the average was 940,800 euros in the case of tenders, compared to the average amount of 73,000 euros in the case of tenders not linked to European funds. In terms of the ratio of the amount granted to annual sales, companies awarded tenders receive on average 28% of their annual turnover, compared to 10% in the case of tenders prior to the Recovery Plan.
Another important conclusion drawn from the work of the Bank of Spain is that the most important tenders are reaching large companies more than small ones. “The companies awarded tenders linked to the Next Generation are larger than the rest of the companies in the same sector and region,” concludes the report presented today. That is to say, the companies that have been awarded tenders from European funds exceed in size those that have not been awarded public tenders as well as those awarded tenders not linked to Community aid.
According to the Bank of Spain, the fact that large companies benefit to a greater extent from the tenders of European funds is due to the fact that the aid is being used "to finance tenders for substantially larger projects", projects to which they have access to large companies.
In general, according to the supervisor's analysis, the larger size of the companies awarded tenders for European funds also coincides with "greater productivity" and with "better conditions of access to bank financing in relative terms" than those of companies winners of tenders not linked to the Recovery Plan. In the case of subsidies, the beneficiary companies are, in general terms, smaller than the companies that benefit from other public subsidies not linked to European funds.
By sectors, the construction tenders stand out, which accumulate 35% of the projects linked to European funds; information and communication, which concentrates more than 20%; and commerce, where just over 15% has ended up. These companies have a greater weight than the manufacturing sector, which is reduced to 15% in the case of the Recovery Plan tenders.
The larger size of the European fund tenders and the companies awarded them “could contribute to a greater positive impact on activity in the short term, given the greater capacity of these companies to undertake the projects without the need to withdraw resources from other investment projects” not dependent on the Recovery Plan, points out the Bank of Spain.
The Bank of Spain concludes that the long-term impact of European funds will depend on “the transformative capacity of the selected investment projects and their complementarity with the structural reforms implemented.” The organization highlights that "the necessary information is not yet available to carry out a rigorous study, but that they will be the subject of priority analysis in the future for the Bank of Spain and the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business."
