Complete failure by the Spanish Government to comply with the rules on the distribution of Recovery and Resilience Facility funds

Question for written answer  E-001452/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Francisco José Millán Mon (PPE)

On 4 March 2021, the Spanish Minister for Industry announced the establishment of a public-private consortium for the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. The initiative would be funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and would be the first strategic project under Spain’s national recovery and resilience plan.

The approval of this project does not comply with any of the rules laid down in Royal Decree-Law No 36/2020 of 30 December 2020 introducing urgent measures to modernise public administration and implement the recovery, transformation and resilience plan. Specifically, the principles of ‘publicity, equal treatment and non-discrimination, competition, transparency and proportionality’ have been disregarded entirely.

• 1.What is the Commission’s view of this?
• 2.How will the Commission ensure that the Spanish Government distributes European funds in a manner that is consistent with the principles of transparency, equal treatment and non-discrimination, as well as with social and territorial cohesion?
• 3.Does the draft national recovery and resilience plan that the Spanish Government has sent the Commission contain any investment projects involving the automotive industry in the city of Vigo?