Governing Council approves first decree on single-parent families

The Governing Council has today approved the new Single-Parent Families Decree. It is expected that 21,000 Basque single-parent families will obtain benefits from various government bodies thanks to a new certificate that can be requested from 1 January.

The decree regulates the accreditation of single-parent families and families with single-parent status through a new digital certificate. Once this certificate has been obtained, the benefits that each family can access will be established by each department, institution or entity within the framework of its own sphere of action. Single-parent families face greater difficulties in reconciling personal, family and working life, and in the Basque Country 80% of these families are headed by women.

The Basque Minister for Welfare, Youth and the Demographic Challenge, Nerea Melgosa, has stressed that "today we are taking another step forward in the recognition of family diversity: all families count, all forms of community matter. We are moving from the concept of the family on its own to a Basque Country that supports it. We are committed to an inclusive and mutually supportive community, where every family contributes to the common project.”

New performing arts space in Deba

The Governing Council has approved a direct grant of €1,062,000 to Deba Town Council for the acquisition of the old Zubelzu cinema, with the aim of transforming it into a new performing arts space at the service of the residents of Deba and the whole of Debabarrena.

The project will recover an emblematic building and adapt it as an auditorium and cinema with a seating capacity of approximately 400 people, as well as incorporating exhibition spaces and complementary cultural uses. This will respond to a historical demand of the residents of Deba, which currently lacks a facility of these characteristics.

The Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy  has also submitted various items to the Governing Council for approval. Firstly, a direct grant of €900,000 was approved for the Basque Association of Cinemas (EZAE) to finance the campaign to promote Basque and European cinema in cinemas in the Autonomous Community during 2025. As explained by the Government Spokesperson Maria Ubarretxena, "this grant is part of the new powers devolved to the Basque Government in the field of cinematography, in force since 1 January 2025 following their transfer by the Spanish Government. The management of these powers has allowed the Basque Government to administer, with a total amount of €1.9 million, funds destined for the production, distribution and exhibition of cinema or to support cinemas, as in this case".

Approval has also been given to the awarding of grants to theatre projects in the three Historical Territories with the aim of promoting artistic creation, audience development and civic participation in the theatrical field with a total funding allocation of €160,421. In Bizkaia, Getxo Kultura will receive €60,421 to develop its educational initiatives "Getxoarte Eskoletan berezia" and "Antzokira!"; In Gipuzkoa, the Victoria Eugenia Antzokia Theatre will receive €50,000 for the development of the "Eskolatik Antzokira" programme; In Araba, Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council will receive €50,000 to develop "Hezi Eszenan!".

Another of the items related to culture and approved today was the direct grant of €20,029.27 to Caniche Editorial, S.L. for the development of the cultural project "Kortak", which will be carried out in Iturribide Etxea, in Ibarrangelu, Urdaibai. The initiative seeks to decentralise artistic creation, bringing cultural production to new audiences and spaces other than traditional urban venues.

The last of the cultural items was the signing of an agreement with the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) to encourage the production, distribution, exhibition and promotion of the film and audiovisual industry in co-official languages during the year 2025. This agreement, which is renewed every year (for each budget year), regulates the management of aid for the promotion of the co-official languages in the audiovisual field. Law 31/2022 on the General State Budget includes an allocation of €13,969,284.86 for this purpose, earmarked for the promotion of cinematography in official languages. €1.6 million will be ring-fenced for this funding.

Basque Government Annual Public Procurement

The Governing Council also noted the Annual Procurement Plan of the General Administration of the Basque Autonomous Community (CAE) for 2026, which includes a procurement pipeline of 435 contracts with an estimated value of €1,503,000.
This Plan includes the programming of the different departments in terms of their public procurement activity for the coming year, including at least the contracts subject to EU-harmonised regulations (in general, these are works contracts, works concessions and service concessions with an estimated value equal to or greater than €5,538,000, and supply or service contracts with an estimated value equal to or greater than €143,000)

€350,000 to promote STEAM vocations among pupils in Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate education

The Basque Government has approved today in the Governing Council the order regulating the call for grants to state-subsidised private schools (centros concertados) for Early Years, Primary Education, Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate in the Basque Country. €350,000 will be earmarked for the development of educational innovation projects in the STEAM field. In this way, the Basque Government maintains its commitment to bringing science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in connection with the arts and humanities, to all students in the Basque Country, especially girls, with the aim of reducing the gender gap in this professional field.

Collaboration agreement with UNED for the three penitentiary centres in the Basque Country

The Governing Council has approved the signing of a new collaboration agreement between the Department of Justice and Human Rights  and the National University of Distance Education (UNED), with the aim of developing the University Education Programme in the three penitentiary centres in the Basque Country.

"The agreement will run for four years and will have a total funding allocation of €200,000 from 2026, distributed over an annual budget of €50,000. Thanks to this agreement, the inmates will be able to access the University Access Course for people over 25 and 45 years of age, as well as the official university Bachelor's and Master's degrees listed in the appendix to the agreement", explained Ubarretxena.

Scholarships for Labour and Social Security Inspection and Corps of Work Sub-Inspectors

The Governing Council has approved six grants to prepare for access to the Senior Inspectorate of Labour and Social Security Inspectors and to the Corps of Work Sub-Inspectors of the Occupational Health and Safety Scale, for the 2025, 2026 and 2027 financial years. These grants are funded with €79,200. Each scholarship has an annual amount of €6,600, paid monthly, and a maximum duration of two years.

Grant to the association Sartu Araba

Finally, a supplementary direct grant has been approved for the Sartu Araba association, to cover the costs necessary to complete the development of the Kutsuak project, one of the eight experimental projects included in the piloting of the Model of Pathways for the social and labour inclusion of people in a situation or at risk of exclusion.
This additional aid, amounting to €6,046, is in addition to the grant awarded on 15 July last under the general funding agreement for these itineraries, and will cover the costs arising from the interventions carried out between 1 April and 31 August 2025, which could not be covered by the first resolution.