- The aid will allow a total investment of 62 million euros to be channelled into projects spread across 12 autonomous communities
- 53% of the initiatives chosen will improve waste management
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Biodiversity Foundation, has published a resolution of the call for subsidies to promote the circular economy in companies, which can be consulted here. This is the first of the partial final resolutions of the second call for the transversal Line 2 for the whole economy of the Strategic Project for the Recovery and Economic Transformation of the Circular Economy (PERTE EC).
This second call was initially endowed with 27 million euros. It should be noted that, due to the large number of quality projects that had been left on the waiting list due to lack of funds after the proposal for a final resolution, it was decided to increase the allocation of aid to 40.5 million. With this extension, it is expected that in the subsequent partial resolutions, projects from a large number of companies that are currently on the waiting list will benefit.
AID FOR ECO-DESIGN AND THE REDUCTION OF RESOURCE
CONSUMPTIONIn this first partial resolution, 19 projects are approved, which will receive 25.7 million, focused on research, development and innovation, to improve the eco-design of products, improve waste management, reduce the consumption of virgin raw materials and waste generation, and also in the digital transformation of processes through infrastructures and systems. These data demonstrate the importance that Spanish companies give to the green transition of their production cycles and their commitment to the circular economy.
The total investment associated with the benefited projects amounts to 62 million. The projects will receive aid of between 100,000 euros and 5.9 million. Co-financing varies between 15% and 60%, depending on the type of action and the size of the entity.
The 19 selected projects are developed by 25 beneficiary entities (two of them are carried out by groups that bring together seven companies). 21% of the selected actions are led by small and micro enterprises. For their part, medium-sized companies represent 47.36%.
The projects benefited in this first resolution extend to different Autonomous Communities: Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Castilla La Mancha, Castilla León, Community of Madrid, Catalonia, Valencian Community, Galicia, Navarre and Murcia.
CIRCULARITY IN THE COMPANY
The category that groups the most projects is the improvement in the management of third-party waste. It is followed by actions aimed at reducing the consumption of virgin raw materials and waste generation, digital transformation in processes, and development and innovation to improve the eco-design of products.
The projects address circularity in topics such as electrical and electronic equipment and its waste, furniture and bulky waste, machinery in general (auxiliary equipment, machine tools, etc.), fundamental and strategic raw materials for industry or mattress recycling.
PERTE CIRCULAR
ECONOMYThis call is part of line 2 of the PERTE EC aimed at projects to promote the circular economy for the economy as a whole. The objective is to support projects and actions that contribute substantially to the sustainability and circularity of industrial and business processes, in order to improve the competitiveness, strategic autonomy and innovation of the industrial fabric within the framework of a circular economy.
After this partial resolution of the call, it is expected that new partial resolutions will be published in the near future, expanding the number of beneficiaries until the available credit of 40.5 million euros is exhausted with the projects of entities that have exceeded the minimum score collected, but that had not reached the status of beneficiary due to lack of available credit.
The ecological transition constitutes one of the four fundamental pillars identified in Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), along with digital transformation, social and territorial cohesion and equality. This Plan contains 30 components, including Component 12 “Spain’s Industrial Policy 2030” which includes a series of reforms and investments in the field of circular economy and waste, highlighting investment C12.I3 “Plan to support the implementation of the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy and waste regulations”. The latter is one of the fundamental instruments for the deployment of the circular economy and for advancing in the achievement of the European Union’s climate and environmental objectives.
