The Basque Country only received a thousand European funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan funds, of which 50.1%, some 895 million, were transferred to direct management, the other half was implemented by the central government. .
This was announced on Thursday in a press conference by the Government delegate in the Basque Country, Denis Itxaso, who appeared as a stock of the main actions taken in the Basque Country, within the framework of the deployment of the recovery plan.
additional growth
After warning that these European funds represent an additional growth of between 1.6% and 2.3% for the annual Basque GDP in the period 2021-2026, Dionysius Itxaso confirmed that “the money will come, it will be transferred to companies and become material in projects”. among which there is an electric car task, which leaves 235 million coins in Basque companies by PERTE, 20 million for the purchase of vehicles and 16.7 million for the installation of the recharification infrastructure and the execution from June 2018 to December 2022 of almost 900 million of cash in full speed works are.
electric vehicle
Itxaso explained that, in terms of the business fabric, 5,400 Basque SMEs have benefited from the Digital Kit program, to accelerate the process of digitizing companies.”
Of those 1,784 million European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, almost half (50.1%, which means 895 million) was transferred to the direct management of the community through the Sectoral Conference, agreements and direct grants. The remaining 889 million dollars (49.9%) were directly implemented by the State General Administration (AGE) and prepared the development of more than 6,480 projects.
Tapia is sorry that the next money does not reach the productive device
In particular, the Basque Country received more than 235 million dollars in PERTE called Electric and Combined Vehicles for four projects led by Mercede, Fagor, Irizar and SAPA. “These projects will enable the transformation of the production model for the electrification of mobility and the development of the industry and the attraction of investment,” Itxaso explained.
The function of the electric vehicle is completed with the contribution from the Government of another 20 million for the purchase of cars and 16.7 million for the infrastructure.
According to PERTE about automation
In this sense, Itxaso announced that “soon”, the Ministry of Industry will announce another PERTE for the automotive industry that it is currently planning, and to which the Basque companies from the entire value chain will offer themselves.
In this sense, he describes the value chain of the sector in the Basque Country, which is “technologically ready for a long time to accompany this change with electrified vehicles” and has developed a plan that is “versatile and flexible enough”. you can adapt and provide help to those Basque companies that pollute less this energy transition”.
Itxaso also the 74 million of money that was allocated to deploy energy renewals and self-consumption in productive sectors and houses, with a great reception that made it necessary to increase the funds initially allocated and the Basque part. The country is in the process of industrial decarbonization, with more than 15 projects for the growth of the renewable hydrogen value chain and more than 18 million in financing,” the Government Delegate pointed out.
The SENER delegate introduced the plan to establish an electrolyzer factory with the aim of providing the Spanish market with competitive and locally made technologies with 10 million European funds.
Among these lines, he explained that the Basque business fabric stands out for its high levels of innovation, which are supported by universities and science and technology parks.
In this area, more than 44 million dollars have already been invested, among others technological programs such as aeronautics and sustainable cars, research grants and R&D missions. In total there are 69 entities in the Basque Country participating in business innovation projects.
SMEs
Itxaso currently reports more than 6,750 SMEs that are the beneficiaries of the specific support program of this entity. In particular, more than 5,400 SMEs have already obtained the benefit of their digit from the VAS digital program (with a total contribution of 35 million coins) and more than 1,300 have obtained financial guarantees for nearly 100 million coins to address projects and modernization.
field health
In the area of health and innovation, Itxaso reported that, within PERTE for Vanguard Health and Private Medicines, various institutions in the Basque Country have received close to 10 million of cash, including 4.5 million of cash from the R&D Plans complementary to finance Akribea and Brem projects to implement medicine personal and in which various companies and research centers such as the CIC Biogune, the University of Mondragón or the Basque Country Biobank participate.
In the field of advanced therapy, the CAR-NK project has been funded “off the shelf”: new growth and hope for immunotherapy against relapsed or refractory hematological cancers with 1 million. On the other hand, the main Basque hospitals received more than 25 million dollars for high-tech healthcare equipment.
With regard to science and technology, 3.3 million of the 16 thousand that will be invested between 2022 and 2025 have already been invested in the construction of an instrument called “Miracle”, which will be part of the European Spallation Neutron Source (ESS) – and which tests can be carried out for science , energy, new materials and health. They will help the development of new drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
In addition, the investment financed for the implementation of interactive digital systems in the school, for the development of digital skills, for R&D missions in Artificial Intelligence (with 7 selected companies: Iberdrola, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Fundación Tecnalia, Visual Interaction and Communication Technologies Center Foundation Vicomtech, Bárbara IoT , Ariadna Tools and Accessible Impact) and for the improvement of connectivity through the extension of the extension in 551 Basque municipalities.
From June 2018 to December 2022, the central government spent nearly 900 million dollars on the construction of a full-speed rail line. All the sections of the Bilbao-Vitoria branch have progressed and other projects have already been obtained and awarded, such as the Irun high-speed station (65 million euros), the third line between Astigarraga and Irun (53 million in cash and it is already in the works) or the reconstruction of construction between Vitoria and Burgos (21 million in cash).
