The communication of public aid in the European Union: the case of Next Generation European funds

Abstract

In order to publicize the Next Generation funds (which will provide €806.9 billion in 2020 prices), each EU member state has had to create a portal that brings together all the information related to this instrument in accordance with the reference regulations. This study analyses the quality of the websites of the countries with the most resources: Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Greece, Romania, Portugal, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Based on a validated protocol, the technical aspects, accessibility and search engine, structure and content, as well as the support of the help desks are reviewed. The results reveal that the best performing portals are Spain, France, Germany, and Italy; and that many portals suffer from incomplete, asymmetric and inaccessible information. Moreover, there is no complete correspondence between the countries that receive the most funds and those that are communicating the best.