Corina Creƫu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, today adopted Spain's largest "Operational Programme" for the 2014-2020 funding period. The programme, which will cover the entire Spanish territory, has a total budget of €7.7 billion, of which the EU will contribute €5.5 billion from the European Regional Development Fund. It aims to ensure that economic growth goes hand-in-hand with sustainable development in Spain, through targeted investments in the areas of green tra
- 23 July 2015
Corina Creƫu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, today adopted Spain's largest "Operational Programme" for the 2014-2020 funding period.
The programme, which will cover the entire Spanish territory, has a total budget of €7.7 billion, of which the EU will contribute €5.5 billion from the European Regional Development Fund. It aims to ensure that economic growth goes hand-in-hand with sustainable development in Spain, through targeted investments in the areas of green transport, improved water quality, integrated urban development and other measures to support the country's transition to a low-carbon economy.
European Commissioner for Regional Policy CorinaCreţu said:"I hope that this programme will enable Spain to make full use of the potential for green growth, which offers both economic and environmental benefits. I encourage the Spanish authorities to ensure that EU funding is used as effectively as possible, in order to make sure that the programme achieves its ambitious objectives."
The programme will provide support for energy efficiency in companies, private homes and public buildings. It will help to step up the production, distribution and use of renewable energy. It will also fund research and innovation in low carbon technologies.
In the area of sustainable transport, the programme will invest in rail links, improve regional mobility by supporting interconnections and multimodal transport, improve interoperability and reduce noise.
Integrated actions for sustainable urban development will focus on three objectives:
- Physical and environmental improvements
- Improve the economy and foster competitiveness
- Social dimension
The scale of the urban area chosen must have sufficient critical mass to address economic, environmental, climate, demographic and social challenges, taking into account equal opportunities between women and men.
In terms of expected impacts, the programme aims to:
- Create a production capacity of advanced biofuels up to 51.592 toe (tonne of oil equivalent)/year
- Increase the use of renewables to 40% in the Balearic Islands (+12%) and 25% in the Canary Islands (+17%)
- Achieve a 10% increase of renewables consumption in the industry and tertiary sector.
- Deliver a 10% increase of renewables production capacity, mainly small scale and in production sites near to the place of consumption.
- Realise a 10% increase of the number of people using urban public transports.
- Allow 100% compliance with the EU urban waste water treatment directive (91/271/CEE) concerning provisions related to collecting systems for urban waste water, secondary treatment and treatment in sensitive zones.
- Multiplication by two of the number of inventions and patents in renewable energy production and storage.
- Multiplication by nearly four the tons of goods transported yearly by train on the basic network
- The doubling of passengers on the basic railway network.
- The doubling of tons of goods transported by train to the Mediterranean Ports.
- Achieve 100% of European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in all sections where it is needed.
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