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Spain Receives Billions In Loans And Grants From The EU

By Deirdre Tynan • Published: 17 Jun 2021 • 13:03

Pedro Sánchez has written to Ursula von der Leyen

Spain receives billions in EU funding and loans. Image: La Moncloa

Spain is set to receive €70bn in grants and €70bn in loans in the next five years from the EU over the next five years.

The Spanish economy shrank by 10.8 per cent in 2020 and the EU Recovery Fund is earmarked to be distributed to the autonomous regions “quickly and fairly”.

Speaking at a joint press conference with the EU’s Ursula Von der Leyen in Madrid on June 16, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, “Our aim is to make sure that the recovery is quick and fair – so that no region and no generation is left behind – and that we look towards the future. This is a nationwide plan; a plan that involves all of us. We have an enormous opportunity to modernise our country for the generations to come.

“The plans approved today for Portugal and Spain open the door to a new way of cooperating together and responding to the challenges we face as societies,” he added.

“These reforms, I’m deeply convinced, will make Spain come out of the pandemic stronger than ever before. Next Generation EU is our unique chance to move forward into a more green, a more digital, a more sustainable society.” Von der Leyen said, noting that 40 percent of the funds would be driven into the green transition.

Under the scheme, the Spain, and other recipients, plan must spend at least 37 percent of the funds on projects that are in line with the EU’s 2050 target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and 20 per cent on digitisation.

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Deirdre Tynan

Deirdre Tynan is an award-winning journalist who enjoys bringing the best in news reporting to Spain’s largest English-language newspaper, Euro Weekly News. She has previously worked at The Mirror, Ireland on Sunday and for news agencies, media outlets and international organisations in America, Europe and Asia. A huge fan of British politics and newspapers, Deirdre is equally fascinated by the political scene in Madrid and Sevilla. She moved to Spain in 2018 and is based in Jaen.

Comments

    • Naimah Yianni

      17 June 2021 • 13:16

      I´d like to know two things about this:
      1. How they are going to pay the loans back without taxing us to the hilt
      2. What do they mean by digitisation?

      It´s all very well throwing money at things but not very good when there is no solid plan for how to repay the loans. If Spain cannot repay the loans then we may end up in the same situation as Greece, where national infrastructure was effectively taken over in order to repay debts to the EU. It´s a rocky road to losing control of the country to the troika

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