CEOE denounces that European funds are diverted to the public sector: "There is frustration in companies"

Rehabilitating an old hospital in Ciudad Real

to convert it into an administrative building and allocating almost

to this work does not seem like a useful investment to

.

denounces it

, which asks for a better execution of the

"It is necessary to underline the importance of public contract tenders being aimed at

' (...) The budget allocated to tenders is sometimes being allocated to actions that they lack a transformative essence", regrets the employers' association in its second monitoring report on European funds in Spain, published this Wednesday.

Despite the fact that the pace of execution has improved in the first quarter of 2022 compared to last year, when just 801 million reached the real economy, as this medium already reported, these funds

ADIF

(Railway Infrastructure Administrator) is being the

followed by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (

);

the General Directorate of Highways;

the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT);

the Carlos III Health Institute and the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics.

"

, which limits the impact of European funds for economic recovery. In addition, official information has not been updated since August 2021," the employers have complained, which admits that "the slowness in the arrival of funds to companies

In the eyes of the institution headed by

"the trend in terms of investment

, since a considerable proportion of the calls published to date are not addressed to companies as direct beneficiaries, but to

", such as local entities, public universities, public R&D centers or public companies and organizations mentioned.

This is so, on the one hand, because channeling the money in the public sector is easier -you just have to make a transfer- and, on the other, because the very design of the calls for the private sector makes it

"It is especially important that

and the deadlines for submitting projects to the calls are reasonable and realistic. In some cases, the deadlines granted barely reach 10 days," they have denounced.

This also happens in the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (

), which is why this Wednesday the Ministry of Industry had to announce an extension of the deadline until May 17 for companies to join the automotive PERTE , endowed with 2,975 million euros.

A third factor that is negatively influencing the agility of the deployment of the Plan is the

itself , since in certain sectors "

or

is taking its toll , without this being taken into account in the design of the tenders "recalls the CEOE.

Changes for the addendum

The Government plans to present an

, which means in practice presenting another additional plan with new reforms and commitments to be able to access the

that the European Union has made available to the country for a value of

.

To date, the Executive had only resorted to subsidies.

Facing this new plan, the employer considers that the Government could apply changes.

"This phase 2.0. could mean a

for the 'Spain Can' Plan to have the expected effect (especially in terms of investments) and not become a second 'Plan E'. To do this, it is convenient to

that are complicating the arrival of these funds to companies", they advise.

Only in this way will the Plan be able to have the expected

.

In 2021, although it was expected to have an impact of 2.7 points on the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (

), its final impact was "practically nil", as admitted by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), due to delays.

For

, AIReF forecasts an effect of the Recovery Plan of 1.8 points on growth, although a priori it expected it to be 2.5.

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• Articles Alejandra Olcese