Spain has received a further €6.23 billion from the European Union’s Next Generation recovery programme.
The payment is the sixth and penultimate instalment under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, which was created to help European economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of the latest amount, received on Tuesday, €5.97 billion relates to Spain’s sixth payment request, submitted in March 2026. A further €265 million was released after Spain completed two targets that had been suspended during the previous assessment.
Spain has now received approximately €78 billion—around 76.5% of the €102 billion included in its current Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The country previously decided not to take up around €60 billion in additional loans.
According to the European Commission, Spain has completed about 60% of the reforms and targets included in its plan.
The latest payment is linked to progress in areas including housing regulations, healthcare, sustainable transport, railway digitalisation and major economic development programmes known as PERTE projects.
However, three targets included in Spain’s sixth request are still being assessed. The Spanish Government must provide further information before they can be approved.
Receiving money from Brussels does not necessarily mean that the same amount has already been spent on projects. EU payments are released when agreed reforms and targets are completed. The actual distribution of money to companies, households, councils and other public bodies is a separate process.
Questions therefore remain over how much of the funding has been fully spent and turned into completed investments. Spain’s General State Comptroller has not published comprehensive execution figures since the summer of 2021.
Only one final EU payment remains. Spain must complete all outstanding reforms and targets by August 31, 2026. The final payment request must be submitted by the end of September, with the European Commission required to release approved funds before December 31.
Spain now faces a race against time. Although €78 billion has already been transferred, around 40% of the agreed targets have yet to be formally completed or approved.
The final success of the programme will depend not only on how much money Spain receives, but also on how much is actually spent and whether the funded projects deliver lasting economic and social benefits.
