Brussels tells Madrid to spend less on roads and more on jobs

Spain should refrain from using European money to build roads and other infrastructure projects, and invest the funds in job incentives and to modernize small and midsized businesses so they can become more competitive, the European Commission (EC) has said.

In a report sent to the Spanish government, the EC wants to begin negotiations aimed at promoting a more efficient use of the funds that it will dole out in the coming years. European institutions are busy working on a plan to help Spain improve the way it uses EU money to be assigned for the 2014-2020 period. The commission wants to guarantee that the funds will go to where they are most needed to help the country emerge from the crisis.

"In Spain there has been a lot of investment in infrastructure -- some has been useful; other cases, let's say, are debatable. But what it hasn't done much is invest in people or small business," Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner for regional policy, told EL PAÍS. "This is something that the current government needs to understand and it should be an absolute priority in upcoming European budgets."

One of the EC's priorities will be to see that Spain reduces the unemployment rate, especially in youths under the age of 25. Hahn believes the EC will be able to obtain a commitment from the Spanish government over the use of funds by the first half of next year.