Is EU financial support enhancing the economic performance of PPP projects? An empirical analysis on the case of spanish road infrastructure

- The EU has made available several financing mechanisms to promote the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
- EU support to Spanish transport PPPs and its influence on their economic performance are analysed.
- Having EU financial backing has a positive influence on the economic performance of road projects.
- Both shadow toll and availability payment mechanisms have higher economic returns than toll ones.

During the last few decades, the European Union has been promoting the use of PPPs in order to accelerate the development of the TEN-T for ensuring economic, social and territorial cohesion and increasing accessibility within the EU. To that end, several mechanisms have been put at the disposal of the Member States to enhance transport infrastructure of interest for the EU. This paper conducts a review of the main funding programs implemented by the EU authorities in order to evaluate to what extent the European support has been rightly channelled to PPP projects. To that end, a multiple regression model has been applied to road PPP projects in Spain to analyse whether those PPP projects with EU financial backing ultimately have a higher economic performance compared to those projects not receiving such a support. The research concludes that there is a positive correlation between receiving European financial support and the good economic performance of those projects.