diff --git a/dhp-workflows/dhp-enrichment/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/countrypropagation/SparkCountryPropagationJob.java b/dhp-workflows/dhp-enrichment/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/countrypropagation/SparkCountryPropagationJob.java
index d9f6433a0..9d553ded3 100644
--- a/dhp-workflows/dhp-enrichment/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/countrypropagation/SparkCountryPropagationJob.java
+++ b/dhp-workflows/dhp-enrichment/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/dhp/countrypropagation/SparkCountryPropagationJob.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.SparkConf;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.MapFunction;
 import org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset;
 import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoders;
+import org.apache.spark.sql.Row;
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SaveMode;
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
@@ -84,19 +85,26 @@ public class SparkCountryPropagationJob {
 		Dataset<R> res = readPath(spark, sourcePath, resultClazz);
 
 		log.info("Reading prepared info: {}", preparedInfoPath);
-		Dataset<ResultCountrySet> prepared = spark
+		final Dataset<Row> preparedInfoRaw = spark
 			.read()
-			.json(preparedInfoPath)
-			.as(Encoders.bean(ResultCountrySet.class));
-
-		res
-			.joinWith(prepared, res.col("id").equalTo(prepared.col("resultId")), "left_outer")
-			.map(getCountryMergeFn(), Encoders.bean(resultClazz))
-			.write()
-			.option("compression", "gzip")
-			.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
-			.json(outputPath);
+			.json(preparedInfoPath);
 
+		if (!preparedInfoRaw.isEmpty()) {
+			final Dataset<ResultCountrySet> prepared = preparedInfoRaw.as(Encoders.bean(ResultCountrySet.class));
+			res
+				.joinWith(prepared, res.col("id").equalTo(prepared.col("resultId")), "left_outer")
+				.map(getCountryMergeFn(), Encoders.bean(resultClazz))
+				.write()
+				.option("compression", "gzip")
+				.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+				.json(outputPath);
+		} else {
+			res
+				.write()
+				.option("compression", "gzip")
+				.mode(SaveMode.Overwrite)
+				.json(outputPath);
+		}
 	}
 
 	private static <R extends Result> MapFunction<Tuple2<R, ResultCountrySet>, R> getCountryMergeFn() {