Calviño puts out to tender only 1% of the largest Perte of European funds a year after announcing it

The government shows enormous difficulties in implementing its main plans with European funds, despite the long preparation time. On the one hand, the first vice president of the Government, Nadia Calviño, announced on Thursday that the Perte Chip – the crucial semiconductor – is finally starting a year after announcing it. But it does so with tenders that barely represent 1% of the planned amount.

This is the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation Chip Announces

adopted by Calviño on 24 May 2022 with an allocation of 12,250 million. It is the largest of all those approved by the Council of Ministers.

However, the vice president said in the

that will take out at the moment only a tender worth 80 million for "R+D missions" and another of 60 million for "public-private collaboration chairs".

while multinationals in the sector are already choosing other European countries to set up factories.

"We will soon launch the first calls for Perte Chip, specifically two first programs," he said. Of the first he said that it is to favor research and development in microelectronics, and the second, chairs capable of

However, the main objective of Perte, according to last year's statement of the Council of Ministers is "to strengthen the design and production capacities of the microelectronics and semiconductor industry in Spain from a comprehensive perspective and favor national and EU strategic autonomy in this sector".

The challenge is to attract factories of these essential products for daily life

, from mobile phones and cars to household appliances, but so far, not even the bazooka of 12,250 million has achieved enough applicants to already draw calls.

"We collaborate with Sánchez to attract semiconductor factories to Spain but it is complicated,"

He told this newspaper last March

the president of Qualcomm,

. The president of Intel, the American

, has so far shown no interest in setting up factories as in Germany or Italy beyond collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Calviño presented his announcement in any case as something positive and boasted that "Spain is at the head of the EU in execution" with

. "Where are they?" said the former president of the Government,

, in a subsequent intervention in the same forum.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Industry announced this Thursday

in an official statement

that "the second call for the Perte VEC [the stellar of the Electric and Connected Vehicle] is scheduled to be announced in June and

». That is, 700 million less than what would be necessary to cover what was deserted in the first call. That, despite the fact that the Ministry has relaxed requirements. According to Industry, the second phase "contains the extension of the aid thresholds introduced in the Block Exemption Regulation and the inclusion of flexibilizations for certain projects."

Nevertheless

, because an addendum with Brussels that can broadly complement the second call is under negotiation.

What is already certain, according to the Minister of Industry,

, is that Brussels has approved a line reserved for battery factories worth 837 million.