The Commission has approved Spain’s sixth payment request, worth EUR 5,700 million, under the NextGenerationEU programme

On 2 July, the European Commission gave partial approval to Spain’s sixth payment request, worth EUR 5,700 million, under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU. At the same time, it has approved a payment for two milestones that had previously been suspended under the fifth payment request.

This is an important step towards implementing reforms and investments linked to this payment request in key areas such as biodiversity, sustainable mobility, research and development, social rights, education and vocational training, culture, sustainable tourism, water management and the efficiency of the justice system.

The Commission has confirmed that Spain has successfully completed 51 milestones and 22 of the 25 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision.

Among the flagship measures in this payment request are the following:

• Strengthening the regulatory framework in the housing market: improving the accessibility and affordability of housing by updating the Statute of theState Housing and Land Agency andsetting out recommendations and best practices for planning permission in the residential sector.
• Strengthening the healthcare system: boosting the resilience of public health and the efficiency of staff management through the creation of the State Public Health Agency, the implementation of specific measures to tackle the critical shortage of healthcare staff, and the reform of the specialist healthcare training system.
• Support for sustainable mobility: accelerating the transition towards safe, low-emission transport through strategic investments in the modernisation of road infrastructure and sustainable mobility solutions.
• Improving the digitalisation of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) rail network: strengthening transport infrastructure through the roll-out of specific digitalisation measures that improve reliability, sustainability and cybersecurity.
• Implementation of strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation (PERTE): driving Spain’s industrial modernisation by promoting energy efficiency, digital transformation and sustainable growth in the main economic sectors.

During this assessment, the Commission has concluded that the milestone relating to the digitalisation of regional and local authorities — from the fifth payment request and which had previously been assessed as only partially met — has now been satisfactorily completed. Consequently, the suspended amount relating to that milestone will be included in the sixth disbursement. This amounts to EUR 25 million.

Furthermore, with regard to a milestone in the field of taxation that was also included in the fifth payment request, the Commission has assessed the additional evidence submitted by Spain and has proposed lifting a substantial part of the suspension previously decided. This will amount to an additional EUR 277 million.

Furthermore, the Commission is not yet in a position to take a decision on three outstanding targets linked to the sixth payment request. These targets relate, respectively, to investments in bilingual vocational training, telecare services and projects supporting vulnerable groups, entrepreneurship and micro-enterprises. Spain intends to submit a reasoned request to amend these targets, with a view to clarifying the elements required to demonstrate the implementation of the investment, whilst ensuring that the ambition and policy objectives of the measures are maintained.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Spain’s compliance with the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to issue its opinion.

At the same time, the Commission has informed Spain of the reasons why it considers that the aforementioned targets have not been satisfactorily met. Spain now has one month to submit its comments to the Commission.

Should the Commission, after receiving Spain’s comments, confirm its assessment that the targets in question have not been satisfactorily met, it will withhold the amount corresponding to those targets from the total amount of EUR 5 700 million in this payment request.

The amount corresponding to the outstanding targets will be determined by applying the Commission’s methodology for payment suspensions (as set out in Annex II to the Communication published on 21 February 2023), which applies to all Member States and places significant weight on milestones relating to key reforms. From that point onwards, Spain will have six months to take action and fulfil its outstanding commitments. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess whether these targets have been satisfactorily met. If so, it will lift the suspension and proceed with the payment of the suspended amount.

Payment to Spain for the milestones and targets already approved may take place following a favourable opinion from the EFC and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission at a later stage.

Background 

Spain submitted its payment request on 3 March 2026.

Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan supports the green and digital transitions, social cohesion and structural modernisation through reforms and investments in areas such as the labour market, taxation, public administration, education, healthcare, housing, innovation, digitalisation, sustainable mobility, renewable energy, tourism and agriculture.

This payment request brings the total funds disbursed to Spain under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to EUR 76 000 million, including EUR 11 000 million in pre-financing. This amount corresponds to 76 per cent of the total funds allocated to Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, and 60 per cent of all the plan’s milestones and targets have already been met.

With a view to the closure of the Mechanism at the end of 2026, Member States must meet all outstanding milestones and targets by August 2026 and submit their final payment requests by the end of September 2026.

 

Morre information: European Commission