Commission partially greenlights Spain's sixth payment request for €5.7 billion under NextGenerationEU

Today, the European Commission partially greenlighted Spain's sixth payment request worth €5.7 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU. At the same time, it has greenlighted a payment for two milestones suspended earlier under the fifth payment request.

This represents an important step in delivering reforms and investments linked to this payment request across key areas such as biodiversity, sustainable mobility, research and development, social rights, education and vocational training, culture, sustainable tourism, water management and justice efficiency.

The Commission found that Spain has satisfactorily completed the 51 milestones and 64 out of the 67 targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

• Strengthening the regulatory framework for housing construction: enhancing the accessibility and affordability of housing by updating the statute of the state-owned housing company (SEPES, by its acronym in Spanish) and providing recommendations and best practices for urban planning licences in the residential sector.
  
  
• Boosting the health system: strengthening public health resilience and workforce efficiency, by establishing the State Agency for Public Health, implementing targeted measures to address critical staffing shortages, and reforming the specialised health training system.
  
  
• Supporting sustainable mobility: accelerating the transition to low-emission and safe transport, through strategic investments in road infrastructure modernisation and sustainable mobility solutions.
  
  
• Improving the digitalisation of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) railway network: strengthening transport infrastructure, by deploying targeted digitalisation measures that enhance reliability, sustainability, and cybersecurity.
  
  
• Delivering on Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTEs, in Spanish): driving Spain's industrial modernisation, by advancing energy efficiency, digital transformation, and sustainable growth across key economic sectors.

In the present assessment, the Commission has also concluded that the milestone concerning the digitalisation of regional and local entities, from the fifth payment request, which had previously been assessed as only partially fulfilled, has now been satisfactorily completed. Accordingly, the suspended amount related to that milestone will be included in the sixth disbursement. This represents €25 million.

In addition, the Commission assessed additional evidence submitted by Spain with regard to a milestone in the area of taxation, also being part of the fifth payment request. Following this assessment, the Commission proposed lifting a substantial part of earlier suspended amount. This will represent an additional €277 million.

Regarding the three outstanding targets under the sixth payment request, the Commission is not yet in a position to finalise its assessment. 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 the targets to clarify the elements needed to prove the implementation of the investment, while ensuring that the ambition and policy objectives of the measures are preserved.

Next steps

The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Spain's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. The payment to Spain can take place following the EFC's opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.

In parallel, the Commission has communicated to Spain the reasons why it considers the above-mentioned targets not to be satisfactorily fulfilled. Spain now has one month to submit its observations to the Commission.

Should the Commission, following Spain's observations, confirm its assessment that the targets in question have not been satisfactorily fulfilled, it will suspend the amount corresponding to these targets, out of the total amount of €5.7 billion under this payment request.

The amount corresponding to the outstanding targets will be determined by applying the Commission's methodology for payment suspensions (outlined in Annex II of the Communication published on 21 February 2023), which applies to all Member States, and which puts significant weight on key reform milestones. From that moment, Spain will have a period of six months to take action and fulfil the outstanding commitments. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess whether these targets have been satisfactorily fulfilled. If so, it will lift the suspension and proceed with the payment of the suspended amount.

The payment to Spain for the already greenlighted milestones and targets can take place following the EFC's positive opinion 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 including the labour market, taxation, public administration, education, healthcare, housing, innovation, digitalisation, sustainable mobility, renewable energy, tourism, and agriculture.

Today's payment request would bring the funds paid out to Spain under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to €76 billion, including €11 billion in pre-financing. This amount corresponds to 76% of all funds included in the Spanish recovery and resilience plan, with 60% of all milestones and targets in the plan now fulfilled.

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

For more information

Commission's preliminary assessment of Spain's sixth payment request

Spain's recovery and resilience plan

Recovery and Resilience Facility

Recovery and Resilience Facility project map

Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard

Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation

Recovery and Resilience Facility - questions and answers

EU as a borrower