The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma) has provisionally granted 500 million euros of European recovery funds NextGenerationEU to 120 municipalities throughout Spain, in which some 18 million people live, to decarbonize transport and promote active and sustainable mobility in urban centers. Within these municipalities are 16 of Andalusia, which will have 65.4 million euros in aid for their projects.
Thanks to this aid, the Ministry will cofinance a total of 432 actions aimed at the purchase of electric city buses, the deployment of bicycle lanes, the pedestrianisation of streets, the digitalization of mobility services or the implementation of low-emission areas, among other projects.
The Ministry has provisionally selected these 432 projects from among the 679 applications submitted by a total of 188 potential beneficiaries of the program: municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, provincial capitals and municipalities of localities with more than 20,000 inhabitants that have an internal urban public transport service, and have a Sustainable Mobility Plan. The call has been held in a competitive competition, so the actions that have obtained the highest score based on criteria of maturity, impact, quality and relevance have been selected.
This provisional resolution corresponds to the second call for proposals of the program of aid to municipalities for the implementation of low-emission zones (ZBE) and the digital and sustainable transformation of urban transport, included in component 1 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). Thus, the EUR 500 million awarded in this second resolution is added to the EUR 1 billion distributed in first call throughout 2022.
In addition, as foreseen in Article 4 of the Ministerial Order of 21 July 2022, Mitma could extend the budget of this aid by up to 50 million euros depending on the available credits. In view of this eventuality, the provisional resolution incorporates in Annex I.2 a list of applications dismissed due to credit exhaustion that could be beneficial in the event that such budgetary expansion finally occurs. In this scenario, the list of beneficiary municipalities would be increased following the order of priority established according to the assigned score. This would include three other projects in Andalusia, with 6.9 million euros.
The list of beneficiaries, published today, can be consulted at Mitma’s e-office:
Provisional resolution of the second call
The entities thus have a period of five working days, starting tomorrow, after the publication today in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the extract of the provisional resolution, to submit claims. Once examined, the final resolution will be formulated.
Subsidized actions
The aim of the aid programme is to contribute to improving air quality in cities and the decarbonisation of mobility. To this end, the selected initiatives promote the promotion of reliable, affordable, attractive and zero-emission urban public transport systems, as well as the promotion of active mobility (cycling, walking) to reduce the use of the private motor vehicle. The distribution of funds by type of action is tentatively articulated as follows:
- 47.4% of the call's budget is allocated to the development of active mobility, such as the construction of bicycle lanes, the pedestrianisation of streets or the installation of bicycle rental points. For example:
o More than 61 million of the funds are going to be used to build or adapt some 212 kilometers of bike lanes.
o The implementation of public rental systems for bicycles and other vehicles for personal mobility will be financed, with 29 million euros, and intermodality will be promoted.
o EUR 149 million has been granted to increase pedestrian space in cities.
- 20% of the funds (100 million euros) will be invested in boosting the fleets of buses and zero emission waste collection vehicles, as well as the recharging infrastructure for its operation. Thus, the acquisition of 423 urban buses with zero emissions or the purchase of more than 8 heavy electric vehicles, such as those authorized for the collection of waste, is financed.
- 21.2% of the aid will finance improvements in the efficiency of public transport, including the strengthening of urban rail services, the distribution of goods in the last mile and the calming of road traffic. This type of project includes actions such as:
o The implementation of measures to calm traffic and distribution of goods. (53 million euros).
o Purchase of rolling stock and improvement of rail transport (EUR 19 million).
o The development or strengthening of municipal competitive parking spaces (15 million euros).
o Establishment of regulated parking areas outside low-emission areas (EUR 1 million).
o Improving accessibility to public transport for people with reduced mobility and special groups (9 million euros).
o Enabling platforms and lanes to prioritize public transport (8 million euros).
- 3.3% of the 500 million in the call for proposals (16 million euros) go to mobility digitisation projects to improve public transport services (real-time information, route planning, digital payment…) and administration management.
- Finally, 8.1% of the aid (EUR 40 million) will finance 25 projects for the implementation of the Low Emissions Zone (EUR 26 million) and 18 complementary actions for its implementation or reinforcement of the existing ones (EUR 14 million). It should be noted that only municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and those with more than 20,000 inhabitants with breaches of air quality levels could apply for funding for this type of action, since they were obliged to implement a ZBE.
The spirit of the PRTR programme is to promote environmentally and health-friendly mobility in the cities with the most concentrated air quality problems and which have an urban transport service. The Climate Change Act obliges municipalities with 50,000 or more inhabitants and provincial capitals to implement low-emission zones by 2023, while the Clean Vehicles Directive provides for the need to renew public transport fleets for low- or zero-emission vehicles in the coming years, both objectives that are intended to contribute to achieving with these funds.
In this context, the municipalities of Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia are the ones that have obtained the most aid in an aggregate form with 265.9 million euros, 53.2% of the total. Not in vain, the beneficiary localities of these autonomous communities bring together a population of almost 13.6 million people out of the 18 million inhabitants that add up all the beneficiary municipalities provisionally in this second call.
Payments and tracking
The beneficiary municipalities must justify to the Ministry the fulfillment of the purpose for which the grant was granted by providing semi-annual reports on the status of the projects.
As stated in the provisional resolution, the proceedings must be executed and launched in June 2025. However, the Ministry will pay the aid in the form of a single advance payment.
In order to receive the income, the municipalities must certify within two months, from the publication of the Final Order for the granting of the aid, that they have initiated the bidding processes of all the actions subject to grant or of a subset of actions whose cumulative amount represents at least 80% of the total grant granted.