These are concentrated in certain professional, educational and commercial activities and they have generally found in favour of the complainant. In a decentralised country such as Spain, which needs different government units to cooperate with one another, these decisions must be taken into consideration by the so-called “sector committees”, which have the power to identify good practices and reach consensuses that can be embodied in legislation through, for example, harmonisation laws. Second, the Public Policy Assessment Law, approved at the end of last year, is intended to incorporate ex ante and ex post assessments into central government legislative processes. This will require the creation of a new appropriately funded State Assessment Agency. Third, with regard to access to public procurement, it is estimated that 12% of tenders in Spain in 2021 were not competitive (as against an EU average of 6%). The literature has highlighted various channels through which public tender awards may be conducive to business growth, investment, innovation and productivity when they are focused on small firms with high growth potential,20,21 since they may serve as collateral and thus improve firms’ access to bank finance.22 In this respect, one of the aims of the Law on Business Start-ups and Growth is to increase the participation of small and medium-sized firms in public tenders. 18  Bardhan (2020), Mora-Sanguinetti and Pérez-Valls (2020), Lucio and Mora-Sanguinetti (2021), Lucio and Mora-Sanguinetti (2022), Mora-Sanguinetti (2022) and Mora-Sanguinetti, Quintana, Soler and Spruk (2023).

Similar to what we have observed at the euro area level, the economic expansion in the Netherlands has also strengthened. GDP grew at 2.2% in 2016, driven by strong domestic demand on account of improving business and consumer confidence and positive wealth and real-income effects. In addition, unemployment has steadily decreased, registering at 5.1% in March 2017, and the Netherlands has more jobs than before the crisis. Supported by low interest rates and a strengthening recovery, the Dutch government ran a 2.9 billion euro surplus last year, its first surplus since 2008. And, as an export-oriented country, the Netherlands is currently benefiting from the recovery in other euro area countries, especially as growth in global trade remains tepid. The side effects of our policies I am aware that these very accommodative financing conditions have raised various concerns, also in this House. Monetary policy measures always have side effects. So far, the potential negative side effects have been limited. We are monitoring these various effects carefully, taking into account our price stability mandate. 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  To ascertain the overall impact of our measures on citizens, it is important to differentiate between the various ways in which they affect economic actors, such as households, pension funds and banks. Let me start with households. An accommodative monetary policy means households accrue fewer nominal returns on their savings. However, an accommodative policy supports the economic recovery, which in turn bolsters employment, income, returns on investment and tax revenues.