The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the Agreement that launches the España Crece (Spain Grows) fund and transfers the necessary resources so that the Official Credit Institute (ICO) can access €13.3 billion to strengthen its equity and finance initiatives aimed at transforming the Spanish economy and improving productivity.
España Crece is designed as the instrument through which the Government extends, without any time limit, the investment momentum of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The fund is part of the PRTR simplification addendum approved by the Council of Ministers on December 9, 2025, which will give European funds a second life after the August 31, 2026 deadline and, at the same time, provide the Spanish economy with a stable public financing mechanism with a long-term horizon.
Capital injection into the ICO
The Council of Ministers’ Agreement allocates the resources that will be transferred to the ICO. A total of up to €10.5 billion will come from Recovery Plan loans and will be channeled as a capital increase, structurally strengthening the institution’s equity for the deployment of the fund’s financial instruments.
An additional €2.8 billion in non-repayable funds will be added to compensate for the concessional cost assumed by the ICO in formalizing certain fund operations. These resources will be held in a separate account and transferred to equity as they are applied to operations.
This financial architecture allows España Crece to offer more favorable conditions in terms of maturity and cost in operations where public support is decisive, without altering the ICO’s net equity position or the prudential principles governing its activity as a national promotional bank.
Investment Strategy of the fund
In addition, the Agreement authorizes the Government Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs (CDGAE), upon proposal by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, to approve the fund’s Investment Strategy. The Strategy will define the general lines of action, the types of eligible operations, and the sectoral priority criteria, in accordance with the terms required in the Annex to the Council Implementing Decision of January 13, 2026, amending the Implementing Decision of July 13, 2021 approving the assessment of Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The Strategy will incorporate the European criteria applicable to the PRTR, including the principle of “do no significant harm” to the environment, and will prioritize operations with a clear transformative effect on the Spanish economy and the capacity to boost long-term productivity growth. The lines of action may be periodically revised to adapt to investment demand and the needs of the productive sector.
The transfer to the ICO approved this Tuesday and the Investment Strategy are the two milestones committed to the European Commission for the definitive deployment of the España Crece fund.
Mobilization capacity and sectoral priorities: housing, green transition, and innovative projects
With the authorized capital injection, the ICO will have the capacity to finance up to €60 billion directly, which, together with private sector co-investment, is expected to mobilize around €120 billion in productive investment. The fund will deploy a broad range of financial instruments — loans, project financing, capital injections, and guarantees — to support companies, especially SMEs, throughout their entire life cycle.
España Crece will prioritize areas of particular importance for the modernization of the Spanish economy, such as the construction of affordable and social rental housing — with the goal of mobilizing up to €23 billion and contributing to the construction of nearly 15,000 homes per year — the green transition, and innovative projects in cutting-edge sectors such as health technologies, the care economy, and digital transformation, while ensuring balanced development across the country.
The fund is conceived as a structural lever for the new phase of Spain’s economic transformation, intended to complement and coordinate the full range of public financial instruments serving productivity and long-term growth.
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