The European Commission has confirmed that Spain utilized €10.2 billion from the Next Generation funds exclusively for current expenditure during the first five years of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan. Records from the community statistics office indicate that the current expenditure used by Spain was €519 million in 2021, €1.767 billion in 2022, €2.777 billion in 2023, €2.900 million in 2024, and €2.257 billion in 2025.
According to Brussels’ accounting, this represents 22.5% of the 45.054 billion euros that Spain has executed from these funds. Consequently, nearly three out of every ten euros have been allocated to current expenditure, while only seven have been directed toward investment. These figures cover the period up to December 31, 2025, a point at which only eight months of the plan’s execution remained and €57 billion were yet to be spent, according to Eurostat.
Between 2021 and 2025, Spain actually executed €45.054 billion of Next Generation funds, compared to an initial allocation of €163.014 billion and an effective allocation—following waivers and adjustments—of €102.560 billion. Thus, five years later, only 28% of the initially announced funds have translated into actual spending according to Eurostat. This figure rises to 43.8% if the €102.560 billion set to be received are considered.
Brussels distributed these funds for investment purposes, but Spain has only allocated—so far—€35 billion of the €163 billion originally assigned (€102 billion after the waiver of €60 billion in loans last year). This represents only 35% of the total. This figure, on the other hand, aligns with what was the actual execution rate of European funds received by Spain prior to the arrival of the Next Gen program.
Community statistics compare the execution of all European Union (EU) countries using a homogeneous framework for the first time, placing Spain with the seventh-worst execution rate on the continent.
