Government distributes 1.42 billion euros among regional governments for employment policies

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The Council of Minister approved the regional distribution of subsidies at an employment level for this financial year.

The Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, explained that a total of 1.42 billion euros will be made available for the implementation of services and programmes of active employment policies, as well as for the modernisation of the Public Employment Services and subsidies prior to ordinary retirement through the Social Security system.

 

After adding the 129 million euros allocated to the Extraordinary Employment Activation Programme for the long-term unemployed with family responsibilities, the funds distributed among the regional governments to reactivate and boost job creation amount to 1.55 billion euros in total. This total represents a 25% increase on last year.

 

Pool Moncloa / J.M. CuadradoThe Minister for Employment and Social Security, Fátima Báñez, took stock of the employment policies implemented during the course of the term of office "to foster the swift return of the unemployed to the job market".

 

Fátima Báñez stressed that Spain has a unanimously agreed and coordinated national strategy in place in this field through the Employment Sector Conference with the regional governments. She also emphasised the collaboration with the social stakeholders and the specific plans to assist those groups suffering the worst hardships.

 

The Minister for Employment also highlighted the change that has taken place in managing public funds. After establishing certain targets with the regional governments, in 2013 it was decided not only to assess these policies, but also to make part of the funding result-based. "And we did this with common targets, clear rules and on a unanimous basis", she pointed out.

Accordingly, in 2014, 40% of the funding was tied in to the degree of compliance with the targets set, a percentage that has risen to 60% this year and which the Sector Conference has set at 70% for 2016.

Increase in pre-doctoral contracts

Pool Moncloa / J.M. CuadradoThe government authorised a call for a round of subsidies for an amount of 71 million euros to university faculty training. The agreement is for a round of 850 pre-doctoral contracts to train teaching and research personnel and mobility assignments in foreign centres, under the programme known as University Faculty Training (Spanish acronym: FPU).

 

The Government Spokesperson pointed out that this round of subsidies will be allocated next week and includes an increase in the number of places by 50 on the previous rounds. She also pointed out that this is a measure that complements others adopted recently, such as internal promotion within the scope of university personnel for tenured university lecturers.

Fiscal incentives in the Canary Islands

The Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree amending the Economic and Fiscal Regime (Spanish acronym: REF) in the Canary Islands. The changes relate to fiscal incentives in terms of direct taxation, the Reserve Fund for Investment in the Canary Islands (Spanish acronym: RIC) and the Special Canary Island Zone. These incentives, specified Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, are focused on job creation, the productive diversification of the Canary Island economic structure, intensive investment in technology and exports to the African continent.

 

The new legislation amends various articles to adapt them to the new legal regulation of the RIC, adjusts the control and monitoring of State aid included in the REF to national and European legislation and improves the system for preliminary authorisations to be granted by the Governing Council in order to operate in the Special Canary Island Zone

Growth forecasts

Pool Moncloa / J.M. CuadradoAt the Cabinet meeting, the Minister for Economic Affairs and Competition, Luis de Guindos, presented a report on economic growth, in accordance with the new estimates for the Eurozone. The Vice-President of the Government highlighted that the two countries that have grown the fastest in the third quarter are Slovakia (0.9%) and Spain (0.8%). "The government maintains its growth target of 3.3% for 2015 and of 3% for next year", she said.

 

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría added that indicators for the fourth quarter are still scarce, but that the Ministry of Economic Affairs notes a "certain acceleration" in the month of October.

The Government Spokesperson highlighted that this growth is compatible with negative inflation - in October prices fell by 0.7% - "which will result in improved purchasing power for salaries and pensions, as well as in the competitiveness of the Spanish economy".

Other agreements

• Regulation of the obligation on financial institutions to identify the fiscal residency of those people that are the title-holders or exert control over financial accounts, as well as to report on the same in the area of mutual assistance.
• Subsidy of 11.9 million euros for the 'Atlantic Motorway of the Sea', which links various Spanish and French ports, with the aim of offering a maritime cargo transport solution to complement goods transportation by road across the Pyrenees.
• Recognition of commitments from various multilateral international bodies. This includes the International Development Association, the African Development Fund, the Asian Development Fund and the Global Environment Facility. These commitments represent contributions of close on 1.2 billion euros between 2015 and 2020 to be allocated to promoting the economic and social development of the most needy countries.
• Recognition of commitments to the Green Climate Fund. Spain thus formalises its contribution of 120 million euros over the period 2015-2020 to the main UN financial instrument for achieving the aims of fighting climate change
• Early approval of the food supply contract within the framework of food aid to the most needy in 2016. The aim is to reduce the time period between the last phase of the handover of food under the 2015 programme. 
• Authorisation of dissolution of State Trading Company Rumasa, expropriated by the government in 1983. It owns total assets of close on 160 million euros; the remainder, following liquidation, will be paid in to the Treasury.

Current affairs

Pool Moncloa / J.M Cuadrado When asked about one of the most topical issues affecting Madrid - the traffic measures adopted by the City Council due to high levels of pollution - the Vice-President of the Government pointed out that the Mayor has acknowledged "the precipitation and the lack of time" with which plans have been made.

 According to Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, these are measures that "affect the daily lives of our citizens, who I believe are very good collaborators, and hence they should be prejudiced as little as possible" and this can be achieved "with due planning and information".

 

She added that this is a "government aware of these problems of pollution, but that we can all organise things better if we are alerted beforehand"; not only those that can be made aware due to a specific protocol, since these measures affect "society as a whole".

 

As regards the latest proposals made by the Acting President of the Regional Government of Catalonia to gather support for his investiture, the Vice-President of the Government declared that, "I believe that an entire autonomous region should not be sold out for just one post".

Along these lines, she added that, "Catalonia is a region that works well; what does not work well is the acting president and those who follow him". She also expressed her conviction that many voters for the candidature that backed the acting president "no longer support the radical and anti-system leanings of the person who wishes to be invested as president".