Spain says EU funds permit egalitarian recovery from Covid crisis

Madrid, Feb 17 (efe-epa).- The Spanish Minister of Economy and Digital Transformation Nadia Calviño on Wednesday said the emergency European Union funds would help Spain emerge from the Covid-19 crisis while tackling financial inequalities that affect young people and women in particular.

Calviño, one of the deputy leaders of the Socialist Party-led Spanish coalition government, made the comments during a forum organized by EFE with the participation of consulting firm KPMG. The topic of discussion centered on how the EU’s recovery funds would shape Spain’s digitalization.

“We want a Spain that is greener, more digital, with greater territorial and social cohesion, more egalitarian, without a gender gap,” the minister said.

The government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez plans to allocate some 20 billion euros ($24.1B), or roughly a third of the coronavirus 140 billion-euro recovery fund earmarked for spending until 2023, towards digitalization.

Calviño said that before the pandemic digital transformation had been a necessary development in Spain but that now it was “absolutely urgent” and had to be embraced as a crucial factor in guiding future economic policy.

She said the pandemic, which has hit Spain hard, proved the importance of the country’s digitalization, adding that progress had been made in the field. EFE-EPA

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