Nearly seven years of investigation, millions of euros at stake, and an answer that never arrived. Spain has withdrawn 20.7 million euros in incentives granted to Stellantis in 2017 for the group’s plant in Vigo.
In the final months of Mariano Rajoy’s government, 20,660,434 euros were awarded in December 2017 under the umbrella of “regional incentives for correcting territorial economic imbalances,” Praza Pública notes.
Investment incentives and, in return, fewer jobs
The aid was intended to contribute to Galicia’s development, although there was no obligation on the part of the company to create new jobs. The European Union questioned the relevance of that aid. It was suspected that it would benefit Galicia little and instead tilt the balance in Vigo’s favor against another plant of the same group in Slovakia.
The argument could be made that favoring Vigo over another factory would aid Galicia’s development. However, the European Commission suspected that this aid was actually aimed at a targeted improvement of production processes, not at job creation or regional development. And this would erode free competition within the European Union.
The EU opened an investigation that lasted seven years. The European Commission established that the planned investment for Vigo would come at the expense of the group’s plant in Slovakia’s Trnava region, considered at least as disadvantaged as Galicia. In other words: Spanish public money would not correct any real imbalance; it would merely relocate a problem from one place to another within the European market.
On top of that, there was the employment issue. The number of jobs would, far from increasing, fall after the investment, with only a commitment to maintain them for barely two years. Reducing the number of jobs does not truly align with the intention of aiding development.
The current government of Sánchez, inheriting a case it had never requested to open, ultimately chose the only remaining option: withdraw the notification of the aid to the EU in January 2026, prompting the European Commission to close the procedure. We have contacted Stellantis, but the group has not commented for the moment.
It is worth noting that the money was never actually disbursed to Stellantis; it remained halted due to the investigation. The investigation was closed, and Stellantis continues to produce in Vigo. Yet the question of what conditions public support should truly meet for large corporations remains, as ever, without an official answer.
We contacted Stellantis, and they indicated that the file dates back to 2014: “During the period of resolving the aid, Stellantis reoriented the project’s priorities and the European legal framework evolved. In light of this situation, the company decided to close the file by mutual agreement with the Spanish and European administrations.”
Images | Moncloa, Stellantis
