The Minister of Economy, Commerce or Business, Carlos Body, has confirmed that before the end of this week or at the beginning of next week the Government will make the formal request for the fifth disbursement of European funds, as reported by elEconomista.es. The new tranche will have more than 7,500 million euros in non-refundable transfers, to which will be added the first two loan disbursements that will make a total amount of about 25,000 million. In addition, Corps has informed Congress that the Executive will present another request to redirect 1.5 billion from the Addendum to the Recovery Plan for the reconstruction of the areas affected by DANA in Valencia.

As anticipated by the head of the Economy, Moncloa will advance the fulfillment of up to 50 milestones and objectives corresponding to subsequent sections of the Recovery Plan, specifically the sixth, seventh and even eighth disbursement. It should be remembered that the fifth disbursement – which will be requested in the coming days – required the approval of the tax reform, which this week returns to Congress after passing through the Senate, where the absolute majority of the PP has introduced tax reductions that could be made reality in the Official State Gazette (BOE) due to the difficult parliamentary arithmetic.

The Corps has taken advantage of its appearance to take an x-ray of the state of execution of the Next Generation to date, and to anticipate the impact that the funds will have on the economy in the coming years. The Government expects that starting next year it will be the reforms undertaken to date that will take over investment and begin to provide greater returns on GDP. Specifically, Economía predicts that the impact of the milestones in force will add 1.7% to GDP in 2025, to which another 1.3% will be added from investments. At this point, he has insisted that – of the 70,000 million euros in transfers deployed – more than 44,000 million have already been awarded. Of them, 40.1% has been allocated to microenterprises and SMEs and 25.7% to large companies.

1.5 billion in response to DANA

The special request to support the response plan that Moncloa has deployed to face the consequences of DANA deserves a point and a separate point. The Government will present a formal request to the European Commission to allocate 1.5 billion euros related to the Addendum for the reconstruction of the areas affected by DANA in Valencia. “We are going to present to the European Commission a specific addendum to the Recovery Plan to reprogram around 1.5 billion euros to support reconstruction in the affected area,” said Body. These funds will serve to promote more sustainable transport infrastructure in the affected areas, so that they are prepared and adapted to events linked to climate change. This financing will also help “move towards an infrastructure environment that is more resilient, if possible, in the face of future shocks and future adverse climate events.”

In addition, Carlos Body has also presented an update on some of the aid for the areas affected by the storm, pointing out that direct aid, channeled through the Tax Agency, of 250 million euros has already arrived to the Valencian economy. For its part, data from the Insurance Compensation Consortium show that compensation already reaches more than 311 million euros, which if added to the more than 30 million in aid to the agricultural sector, makes a total of more than 600 million. aid between direct aid and compensation “that has already reached the Valencian economy.” “We are advancing rapidly in the urgent disbursement of these funds,” stated Carlos Corpo, who concluded by highlighting the importance of disbursing these resources to minimize the structural or long-term effect of the catastrophe.

Moncloa will request the fifth disbursement of the ‘NextGen’ between this week and the next