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Spain renounces European aid for tourism because the Government sees it unnecessary
The European Commission has confirmed it: Spain has not presented any tourism plan to Brussels to obtain specific aid for the sector. This has been explained by the Head of Competition, Margrethe Vestager, in a response to MEP José Ramón Bauzá, noting that, in effect, no department of the Spanish Government has contacted Brussels to obtain such aid due to the pandemic . “The best help that governments can now provide to the sector is to provide certainty and security to reactivate mobility,” the Ministry of Industry and Tourism told the newspaper El Mundo.
The Ministry of Industry highlights the 7,000 million direct aid package approved in March. And it is that, from the department of Minister Reyes Maroto, they understand that it has not been necessary to request permission for a specific regime of aid to the sector because the last approved direct aid package of 7,000 million is compatible with the temporary framework of state aid of the European Commission.
However, the aid that the minister presumes has not yet reached the sectors three months later, as its channeling in the autonomous communities has been delegated
Bauzá has stated that Spain could request permission for a specific aid scheme for this leading sector of the economy in a way that is compatible with other general measures. The MEP for Citizens and former president of the Balearic Islands describes the position of the Ministry as an “aberration”.
The European Commission has approved in recent months a dozen state support programs for the tourism industry by Italy and also various to Portugal, Greece, Croatia or Cyprus, but not for Spain.
