Spain has committed 53% of European funds for 2022 and more than 18,000 million have been transferred to Autonomous Communities

MADRID, 7 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, has reported that 66% of the 'Next Generation EU' funds budgeted for 2022 have already been authorized and the amount committed exceeds 53%, while already transferred more than 18,000 million euros to the autonomous communities to finance projects within the scope of their powers.

"The deployment of the Recovery Plan is reaching cruising speed," said the first vice president during her speech at the Committee on Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation to report on the Spanish economic situation, among other matters.

Despite the uncertainties and the current complex situation, marked by the war in Ukraine and the escalation of prices, Calviño has insisted on the importance of paying attention to the medium and long term. In this sense, he has valued the deployment of the Recovery Plan and has indicated that a monthly rate of calls of more than 2,000 million euros is being reached, including the General State Administration and the autonomous communities.

Calviño recalled that throughout this year the addendum to the Recovery Plan will be presented, with which it is intended to mobilize the additional 7,700 million euros of transfers - which are added to the almost 70,000 collected in the Plan - and the 84,000 million euros in loans.

Spain has allocated a total of approximately 160,000 million euros for public investments until 2026 between transfers and loans related to European funds 'Next Generation EU'.

In addition to transfers and investments, the Vice President highlighted the impact of the reforms and, as an example, praised that in the case of the labor reform, its "success is exceeding all expectations".

And it is that the vice president has celebrated that thanks to the labor reform a "structural change" has been achieved in the labor market, and proof of this is that there are already more than 20 million affiliates to Social Security, it has dropped from the barrier of three million unemployed for the first time since 2008 and the unemployment rate is around 12%.

In addition, he highlighted that in the last year more than a million permanent jobs have been created in Spain. "Today, practically one out of every two contracts are permanent jobs and it should also be noted that only 25% of these permanent contracts are permanent discontinuous ones", he pointed out.

In addition, he celebrated the fact that today the Senate has approved, although with some technical modification, the bill for business creation and growth, the 'Create and Grow' law, and he hopes that it will be definitively approved shortly in the Congress of Deputies.