The Government reiterates its commitment to the creation of the 3 March Memorial

• The Governing Council has approved the 5th Basque Inclusion Plan 2022-2026 today
• The Government allocates 1,170,000 euros to finance the cost of 18 union representatives for state-subsidised schools for the 2022-2023 school year

The spokesperson for the Basque Government and minister for Culture and Language Policy, Bingen Zupiria, appeared at the usual press conference after the Governing Council, together with the Secretary General for Social Transition and Agenda 2030, Jonan Fernández, who presented the report “The cost of residential emancipation in the Basque Country 2021” by the Basque Youth Observatory. The aim of the report is to assess what it means for a young wage-earner between 18 and 34 years of age to emancipate on their own, either by buying or renting a home.  

As explained by Jonan Fernández, the report’s data corroborate the need and importance of deploying a specific strategy to promote youth emancipation. In the words of the Secretary General, “the data reflect the great difficulty for a young person, earning an average salary, to emancipate themselves in the free housing market.” For this reason, he said that it is a priority of his department to define the financial aid for emancipation for young people between 25 and 29 years old before March and announced that on that date the online service of guidance and personalised accompaniment for emancipation and youth mobility “Gazte-ibilbideak abiarazteko zerbitzua” will be available.

AGREEMENTS OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL

As usual, the spokesperson, Bingen Zupiria, provided information on other agreements of the Governing Council, including the following:

The Governing Council has given the green light to aid for technical cooperation projects with the regions of Wales, Flanders and Corsica for 2023. With today’s agreement, 40,000 euros will be made available to propose projects of bilateral activity or collaboration, ranging from mobility issues, fiscal policies or agri-food industries, within a wide range of issues that address common interests with each region.

Likewise, the Governing Council today approved the 5th Basque Inclusion Plan 2022-2026, an instrument that aims to tackle the new inequality gaps, reduce in-work poverty and increase the effectiveness of benefits.

The government has approved aid to facilitate the activity of trade union centres represented in the Basque civil service. These involve civil servants and employees of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and autonomous bodies; statutory personnel and employees in the service of Osakidetza, non-university public teaching staff, Ertzaintza personnel, employees of the Department of Education and the Department of Security. In total, the overall amount of the aid is 432,000 euros.

In conjunction with the Department of Education, the Government has agreed to finance the cost of 18 union members for the 2022-2023 school year, for a total amount of 1,170,000 euros. There are 12 union members in the Social Initiative Teaching Centres, and up to 6 union members in the ikastolas in Araba, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia.

On the other hand, the Governing Council has given the green light to the aid that has been made available for the urban regeneration of 14 vulnerable neighbourhoods in 12 municipalities in the Basque Country. It consists of an allocation of 93 million euros to finance projects that form part of the comprehensive urban regeneration plan for vulnerable neighbourhoods in the Basque Country, on which work has been ongoing for the last six years, and which now covers 21 municipalities.

In the area of development cooperation, the government has approved five direct grants to African organisations working to defend human rights defenders and women, for the Ministry of Cooperation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and for the Unicef Foundation for the humanitarian response after Hurricane Ian hit Cuba. The total amount of aid is 700,000 euros.

Today, the Governing Council of the Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy approved the call for grants for cultural creation in 2023. It consists of 354,000 euros to promote projects in six different modalities: Theatrical texts, film scripts in both Basque and Spanish; musical compositions, literary texts in Basque aimed at young people, short stories and novels in Basque and choreographies.