They are the plans prepared by EU Member States to get access to NextGenerationEU funds, the EU instrument to support economic recovery. National recovery and resilience plans contain each country’s investment and reform programme.

These programmes have four main goals: to deal with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, to accelerate the green and digital transitions, to contribute to climate goals, and to contribute to the digital transformation of the economy. In addition, investment and reform initiatives must lead to economic growth while promoting gender equality and equal opportunities for all.

The recovery and resilience plans prepared by Member States are assessed by the European Commission on the basis of a series of criteria that ensure transparency and take into account a variety of aspects. For instance, if the measures address the challenges identified in the country-specific recommendations set forth in the European Semester Country Reports of the past few years, if they meet the climate expenditure and digital expenditure targets, or if they contribute to increasing the country’s growth potential, reducing unemployment and building social and economic resilience in the Member State concerned.

Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) is the plan prepared by Spain, alongside other EU Member States in order to access NextGenerationEU resources.

The PRTR includes a series of reforms and investments to be implemented between 2021 and 2026. The PRTR structural and legislative reforms were designed to face the challenges identified by social actors in sector conferences and by social dialogue groups, and to follow up on expressions of interest and the recommendations of European and Spanish institutions. In sum, the PRTR is a sort of road map for the future ahead.

In October 2023, the PRTR was updated to mobilise all the NextGenerationEU resources allocated to Spain.

Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), approved by Council in July 2021, was updated in October 2023, entering a second phase in the recover7y process.

A new calendar of payments was designed in order to keep up the pace of investment. Also, seventeen new reforms were added to help accomplish the transformation of the economy and consolidate the sustainable development model.

For further information about the recovery and resilience plan’s update, go to the PRTR website.

Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) takes a top-down approach. So, first of all, the plan is divided into four general lines of action: the green transition, the digital transition, social and territorial cohesion, and gender equality.

Underlying these four lines of action are ten leverage policies (corresponding to ten main subjects), divided into thirty components, subsequently translated into investment and reform initiatives. Each component comprises 212 measures (specific reforms or projects) focusing on a single milestone and target, with an impact on one or more of the general lines of action.

If you are interested in a leverage policy or component in particular, you can find more information about them on the PRTR website.

Spain’s approved plan has been valued at €140 billion – €70 billion in Recovery and Resilience Facility (RFF) grants and another €70 billion for the updates.

For further information about NextGenerationEU allocations to Spain, go to the PRTR website.

During the coronavirus pandemic, EU Member States set up a common fund to face the consequences of COVID-19. Then, the European Commission asked them to prepare their recovery and resilience plans to become eligible for aid.

As the plans are approved, and their milestones and targets are achieved (which is already happening), RRF funds are disbursed. After assessing and approving Spain’s recovery and resilience plan, the European Commission granted the country €140 billion.

The sector conferences, held on a regular basis, gather the representatives of a ministry and those of the relevant trades. They discuss the criteria for fund allocation, the amounts to be allocated, and the targets to be met with the allocations. Thus, the autonomous communities get the funding for their projects in advance and, in exchange for this, they agree to carrying out these projects in order to contribute to achieving the targets in the national recovery and resilience plan.

Let us say, for example, that NextGenerationEU proceeds are available in connection with Component 4 in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) – namely, Ecosystem and Biodiversity Restoration and Conservation. An environment sector conference is set up to discuss the criteria to allocate the funds and the amounts to be allocated: the land area in each region according to the NATURA Network, the total forest area in a broad sense, etc. Based on these criteria, the autonomous communities analyse their needs in this sector and come up with commitments such as installing high-voltage transmission towers that are safe for birds, thus contributing to local development while preserving biodiversity (Target 1 of Component 4 in the PRTR).

EU Members States work with the European Commission to achieve milestones and targets (the requirement to get funding) and then National Governments transfer the funds to Regional Governments on the basis of agreed criteria and commitments. In Spain, national ministries and regional governments have been in conversation since late 2020 – an essential process to be allocated NextGenerationEU resources.

For further information about the NextGenerationEU fund allocation system, go to the PRTR website.

Spain’s modified milestones and targets are described in the Council Implementing Decision (CID) of 2 October 2023. All the relevant information can be found in the annex.

All the initiatives taken by the various departments of the Government of Navarra, their status and resources, are published every month on the Navarra Open Government website (available in Spanish and Basque), in the section dedicated to European funds.

The governance model is defined in Royal Decree/Law 36/2020. It is aimed at facilitating decision making and ensuring an effective control and audit of the funds. A series of special working units have been set up accordingly:

1. Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Committee. Led by the President of the Government of Spain, it includes representatives of every ministry. It is in charge of PRTR coordination and management.
2. Technical Committee. It is made up of up to twenty members with skills and expertise in EU fund management and other areas relevant to PRTR management.
3. Follow-Up Unit. It reports to the Presidency of the Government.
4. Head of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. It is part of the General Secretariat for European Funds at the Ministry of Finance, which reports to European institutions.
5. Monitoring Body of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. It belongs to the General State Comptroller (IGAE).

The calls for applications are the announcements of grants and tenders for big companies, SMEs, freelancers and individuals in the context of the recovery and resilience plan. Grants and tenders are awarded in accordance with the Public Sector Contract Law and the General Subsidy Law.

Calls for applications are the only way of having access to NextGenerationEU funds. Also, the scale of the disbursements they announce is big, both for the Spanish economy at large and for Navarra in particular.

Applicants are advised to check each call’s terms and conditions thoroughly and to gather all required documents in advance.

Submitted projects must meet the particular requirements set forth in each call.

In addition, there are a few principles that govern all calls and should be met by all the initiatives funded with Recovery and Resilience Facility (RFF) funds through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). For instance, the DNSH (“Do No Significant Harm”) principle, which entails assessing whether an activity that contributes substantially to an environmental or social objective, does not significantly harm other environmental or social objectives.

Finally, there are the requirements set forth in the General Subsidy Law:

• Being up-to-date with tax and social security obligations.
• Having a clean criminal record at the time of application.
• Not having your tax residence in a tax haven.
• For businesses, not falling within the category of distressed companies, that is, companies that are in risk of or have already defaulted on their debts.
• For natural persons and/or legal representatives of legal persons, not being in any of the situations of incompatibility listed for civil servants in public administrations.
• Not having received financial aid beyond €200,000 in the past two financial years (there is a provision for exceptions here).

PERTEs (an acronym for Proyectos Estratégicos para la Recuperación y Transformación Económica) are strategic projects for economy recovery and transformation. A separate funding channel, they can be a powerful driving force in the national economy.

The PERTE strategic projects focus on a wide range of areas, including state-of-the-art healthcare, the agrifood industry, the new language-based economy, the circular economy, and the shipping and aerospace industries.

Public-private partnerships are required to carry out these projects. Depending on the PERTE in question, it may be necessary to get regional governments, businesses, research centres and other actors involved in order to scale the project up for national scope. Unlike other types of grants, PERTEs are managed by the Government of Spain in coordination with private businesses, rather than by regional governments.

For further information about the strategic projects for economy recovery and transformation (PERTEs), go to the PRTR website.

CoFFEE-MRR (Plataforma Común de FFEE – Fondos Europeos –, Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia [Common Platform for European Funds-Recovery and Resilience Facility]) is the information management system of the Spanish recovery and resilience plan. It is available to all regional and local governments.

The platform gathers all the information produced by individual ministries, regional governments, cities, state-owned enterprises, and so on, as they deal with the projects associated to the recovery and resilience plan.

Moreover, CoFFEE-MRR is a tool to check whether the milestones and targets defined in the recovery and resilience plan before disbursements are approved, thus contributing to improve the transparency of all transactions.

The General Secretariat for European Funds has a support service, offered by the state-owned enterprise TRAGSATEC, to help public administrations with their PRTR applications and procedures.

The service is targeted at towns with less than 5000 residents. They have to follow a sign-up protocol, and they can contact TRAGSATEC by email at apoyo.hacienda.navarra@tragsa.es

The service helps local administrations complete the sign-up procedures, gives technical support for the implementation and follow-up of PRTR subprojects, and for the use of the CoFFEE platform, and contributes to the compilation and dissemination of best practices.

In addition, the Navarra Association of Town Governments and Councils publishes PRTR-related information on its website that might be of interest to local administrations, as well as calls for participation, a newsletter with the relevant calls for applications, and links to educational contents. 

Through the Advice for town councils link you can obtain assistance.​​​​​​​