Fact-check: No, Brussels has not frozen EU recovery funds for Spain

Over the previous few days, Twitter customers and sure information retailers have falsely claimed that the European Union has frozen the pandemic restoration funds for Spain. 

It appears to have began when Bloomberg revealed an article explaining that Spain missed a second deadline final month to implement a brand new auditing system required to unlock cash from the EU’s pandemic fund, “placing in danger new funds from the €160 billion it’s eligible to obtain.”

EU pandemic restoration funds are disbursed on a “performance-based nature,” based on the European Fee.

Which means international locations have to point out that they’ve fulfilled their guarantees relating to sure reforms and milestones when receiving this cash.

Within the occasion that the guarantees haven’t been met, the EU Fee can then resolve to freeze the funds. 

Allegations of the freeze shortly turned a speaking level for quite a few Spanish newspapers and politicians. Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the populist president of the Group of Madrid tweeted that the EU had already blocked the funds for Spain. 

However Nuyts Veerle, a spokesperson for the EU Fee, shortly denied these allegations. 

“Any declare that the Fee has frozen the funds for Spain below [the] Restoration and Resilience Facility is unfounded,” she tweeted.

She added that Spain “has fulfilled all the milestones and targets linked to all cost requests submitted to this point.”

The final time Spain requested funds was again in April 2022. 

Veerle additionally clarified that the following time Spain requests cash from the restoration fund, the EU Fee will overview whether or not Madrid has fulfilled all of its guarantees or not.

But this didn’t imply the EU has already frozen that cash. 

The Spanish authorities has not but requested the third EU cost however is planning to take action earlier than November 11.