Spain will request the next disbursement of EU funds this month, although there is no progress on the diesel tax increase

Madrid – The Minister of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, announced this Friday that Spain will request the next disbursement of the European recovery funds ‘Next Generation EU’ at the end of this January, although he acknowledged that there has been no progress regarding the fulfillment of the milestone related to the diesel increase.

In statements to the media after taking part in an event on financial education, the minister recalled that before the deployment of the Recovery Plan ends in 2026 there will be two additional disbursement requests from Spain.

“We will make the first of these requests at the end of January, the next will come in the summer, which will already be the last one, the closing one,” explained the Government’s economic chief, after pointing out that progress is being made hand in hand with the Commission in recognizing the fulfillment of all the associated milestones.

Nevertheless, the diesel increase was one of the past milestones that the Government failed to get approved in Congress. Given the difficulty of getting it through Congress, the European Commission granted Spain an additional six-month period to comply with this measure, which must be approved before the end of January. However, the minister acknowledged today that there has been no progress. (January 16)