Brussels only grants Spain 4% of the Ecological Transition Fund

More is less. The important evolution of renewable energies in the national energy market, which have doubled from 8.3% in 2004, will leave Spain with hardly any access to the new Just Transition Fund of the European Union, according to data published on Wednesday by the European Commission.

The new budgetary instrument, whose draft was approved by the European Commission on Tuesday, will help finance the industrial and energy conversion necessary to achieve Eu objectives in the fight against climate change. And the countries that benefit the most will be those that have lagged behind in the decarbonization of their energy production, with Poland and Germany at the forefront.

Spain will only be eligible for 4% of a Fund that aims to mobilize up to 104,000 million euros, according to the draft distribution prepared by the Commission. The document establishes the distribution by States according to four criteria that clearly penalize the most advanced countries in the introduction of renewables such as Spain.

Spain would receive €307 million of the €7.5 billion that the Commission wishes to allocate to the Just Transition Fund. That capital, according to the Commission’s calculations, would mobilise a further EUR 1 397 million from the Structural Funds. And the foreseeable incorporation of private capital would raise the impact of the Fund in Spain to 4,456 million compared to 27,000 million in Poland or 13,000 million in Germany.

To ensure that part of the Fund reaches all States, the Commission introduces a total ceiling (€2 billion) and a minimum aid intensity ceiling (€6 per person). Poland achieves the maximum. And Spain is left with an intensity of 6.6 euros, among the lowest in the entire EU.

Poland, according to the planned distribution, would keep a quarter of the Fund. And Germany could have kept the fifth part, but a correction has been introduced (based on GDP) that reduces its share to 11%. Between these two countries and Romania they will cover more than half of a Fund with which Brussels aims to convince the most reluctant countries to assume the objectives of reducing CO2 emissions by up to 45% in 2030 to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

“What we are doing is sending a message to coal miners in Asturias, Western Macedonia or Silesia,” Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s vice-president in charge of the Green Deal, said on Tuesday during his speech to the European Parliament to present investment plans linked to climate objectives. But the Commission’s private calculations, which were not made public until Wednesday, show that the message is rather directed towards Silesia and the rest of Poland and East Germany.

The figures have been circulated by the Commission among the representatives of the Member States in Brussels, as part of the presentation behind closed doors of a Fund that is part of the financing plan of the so-called Green Deal or European Green Deal.

The main distribution criterion (weighing 49% of the final grade) is the level of greenhouse gas emissions in regions with a high intensity of coal production or consumption. And the black palm is taken by Germany, first of all, followed by Poland, which account for almost 50% of the more than 900,000 tons of CO2 emitted in Europe by that industry. Spain, with 42,700 tons, is far from those two countries and below Italy, France, Holland or the Czech Republic.

The other big scale is the number of jobs in coal-related sectors. And Spain, consequently, also appears at the bottom of the table with 276,000 jobs out of a total that exceeds seven million. Poland has almost two million jobs and Germany with just over 1.2 million, according to data distributed by the Commission.

Fresh money?

The European Commission wants the €7.5 billion of the new Fund to be an additional sum to the next EU budgetary framework (for 2021-2027), which would preserve the integrity of the structural funds.

But the negotiation of the framework is still very open, with an outcome still uncertain. Several partners, with the Netherlands at the helm, want to restrict the budget as much as possible to the equivalent of 1% of the GDP of the 27 EU countries compared to 1.16% in the current framework if the quota corresponding to the United Kingdom (which will leave the club on January 31) is discounted.

The latest proposal on the table puts spending at 1.07%, with a scissors of 50,000 million on the initial proposal of the European Commission (which aspired to 1.11%). A third of the cut would be focused on the Structural Funds, with a serious impact on the net balance of Spain, which is among the main recipients of this item.

Spain’s balance sheet could deteriorate further if the Transition Fund is finally nourished by the Structural Funds, a possibility that countries in favour of restricting spending would like. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, will be in charge of carrying out in the next bilateral meetings with the different capitals to test the degree of consensus. And if it detects the possibility of an agreement, it could convene an extraordinary European summit in February to close the first accounts of the EU after Brexit. Dwindling accounts for a club that for the first time loses a member.

Source: The Country