Spain allocates less than 3% of its GDP to public investment, only ahead of Ireland and far from France's 4.5%. 73.7% of Next Generation funds have gone to administrations.
Spain is the second country in the European Union that invests the least in public services. The European Commission places the flow of Spanish public capital below 3% of GDP, only ahead of Ireland and far from 4.5% of France and the 3.8% average in the Twenty-Seven. This data appears in the latest edition of Economic Forecasts, the working document of the community executive, and was disclosed by the deputy secretary of Economy of the PP, Alberto Nadal, as published by OK Diario.
The paradox is that this low public investment coexists with a huge volume of European aid. Until the first half of 2026, Spain has resolved calls for around 51.376 million euros. Of that total, 73.7% has gone to 5,603 state, regional and local entities. Only 24% has been received directly by private entities, and 1.8% by individuals.
The Next Generation programme started six years ago, after the Covid-19 pandemic, and on August 31, the deadline for member states to execute the resources formally ended. Spain had been allocated 163.014 million euros, but over time it has renounced 38% of those funds, equivalent to 61.706 million.
The PP argues that the management of the executive has been marked by improvisation. Nadal explained at a press conference that the funds have mainly served "for the Government to survive without budgets," and not to improve public services or productivity. The popular party counts nine addenda to the plan in the last three years, which leaves the final allocation at around 101.104 million euros.
"For the Government to survive without budgets"
From that figure, the PP considers that about 30.000 million have an uncertain future: on paper they are allocated, but not in practice, and the executive wants to account for them as allocated before the deadline of August 31. Nadal described this deviation as "very serious" regarding the rules of the European Commission.
The most striking case, according to the popular party, is the 15.000 million euros that were allocated on July 28 to a small group of public companies, an operation that the PP interprets as a way to mask the inability to bring that money into the real economy on time.
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