Spain will receive around 140 billion euros from the European Recovery Fund and 72,700 million of that will be given in direct aid, according to the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, after a deal was reached on Monday in Brussels.
“It is a great agreement for Europe and for Spain," he said. "Make no mistake, one of the brightest pages in the history of the European Union has been written today.”
Prime Minister Sánchez defined the agreement as "a true 'Marshall Plan'" to respond forcefully to the Covid-19 crisis and address the transformations that the country needs in the future.
He also highlighted the fact that the European Commission is going into debt for the first time to finance the fund, saying he understands that the so-called "emergency brake" has been applied to something as important as the fund and that it’s normal to want to check how plans and programs work out.
Sánchez also pointed out that this method of control does not break the Institutional balance or degrade the position of the European Commission. In terms of the level of confidence that other countries may have in the Spanish reforms, he said that the country's agenda is "aligned" with that of the European Commission.
"Today all Europeans win and the European Union comes out much stronger", insisted Sánchez, who admitted that “negotiating this agreement has been an extraordinary challenge that required strenuous work but the result has been worthwhile.”