MADRID, Spain – The government of Pedro Sánchez has given or committed more than 1.26 billion euros in public money to Morocco since he took office in 2018, encompassing development cooperation, loans, and public financing for projects in the neighbouring country, with the bill particularly soaring in recent years and mainly directed towards rail infrastructure, water, economic development, and migration control. The figure results from adding Spanish public funds disbursed or committed to Morocco since 2018, including both Official Development Assistance and credits granted through public bodies such as the Fund for the Internationalisation of Enterprises, FONPRODE, and COFIDES.
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Between 2018 and 2023, Spanish bilateral ODA to Morocco accumulated more than 230 million euros, rising from 20.08 million in 2018 to 29.07 million in 2019, declining to 18.4 million in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, and then growing strongly to 31.37 million in 2021 and 58.55 million in 2022. In 2022, Morocco ranked among the main recipients of Spanish cooperation, and that same year the Council of Ministers authorised a loan of up to 20 million euros through FONPRODE for JAIDA, a Moroccan microfinance entity, bringing public money destined for Morocco to at least 78.55 million in 2022 alone.
The truly significant increase came with major infrastructure projects. In 2024, COFIDES participated in financing the giant Casablanca desalination plant with a 31-million-euro loan, but it was in 2025 that the amounts surged dramatically. Spain articulated public financing of more than 750 million euros for Moroccan public railway company ONCF to acquire 40 interurban trains, financed through FIEM and structured through the Official Credit Institute with Moroccan sovereign guarantees, linked to the acquisition of trains awarded to Spanish company CAF. This operation was joined by another 250 million euros in FIEM credit for the Casablanca desalination plant.
The financial relationship between the two countries accelerated after Sánchez’s shift on Western Sahara. In March 2022, the Prime Minister endorsed the Moroccan autonomy proposal as the “most serious, realistic, and credible” basis for resolving the conflict, opening a new phase in relations between Madrid and Rabat. The total bill compiled already exceeds 1.26 billion euros since 2018, despite not yet incorporating all cooperation from the most recent years due to a lack of comparable disaggregated official data.
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The calculation excludes double-counting of the same operation, even though the government itself announced the same amounts multiple times in its communications, and does not include CESCE public guarantees on private financing as they do not constitute an equivalent public disbursement. The figure demonstrates the magnitude of public resources Spain mobilised towards Morocco during Sánchez’s government, ranging from cooperation and migration control to microfinance, water, and above all the major railway infrastructure that Rabat is developing for the coming years, despite this not having prevented the invasion of Ceuta. The commitment comes as the Sánchez government itself appears to question whether Morocco is a country prepared to host the minors who crossed the Ceuta border.
