Bankruptcy, criminal and administrative proceedings continue 3 years after the Zaldibar disaster

• The ‘one-off payment’ aid that aims to help women victims of violence to become independent to be increased

• Security analyses the introduction of metal detectors in nightlife venues 

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 Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia.  

The Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, recalled that yesterday, 6 February, marked the third anniversary of the collapse of the Zaldibar landfill that ended the lives of Joaquín Beltrán and Alberto Sololuze, and caused serious environmental damage in the area. The Basque Government, in a subsidiary capacity, carried out the search for the missing persons from the outset, as well as work to stabilise the landfill and prevent further damage to the environment. “As of today, the Zaldibar landfill has been stabilised and pre-sealed, and its environmental authorisation has been modified, requiring the owners to definitively seal it and to carry out post-closure control and monitoring measures,” explained Tapia. 

As a consequence of the acceptance of the insolvency liquidation process by the commercial court, the fulfilment of these actions corresponds to VERTER RECYCLING 2002, S.L. IN INSOLVENCY AND LIQUIDATION. 

Furthermore, Arantxa Tapia pointed out that the bankruptcy, criminal and administrative proceedings are still ongoing. 

NIGHTLIFE ASSAULTS

Following an increase in assaults with knives and dangerous objects in night-time settings, the Government spokesman explained that the Department of Security is analysing the possibility of making it compulsory for leisure venues to have metal detectors. 

The vast majority of crimes take place on public roads and in festive premises or environments and occur, above all, on Saturdays and Sundays, when there is more activity; for this reason, last Friday the Minister for Security announced an “Action Plan against the use of bladed weapons and other dangerous objects” with specific police measures coordinated between the Ertzaintza and local police forces in the Basque Country. As Zupiria explained, it is a security operation that includes police control of the immediate vicinity of the most crowded and nightlife areas, and also includes studying the options of modifying the Regulations on Public Entertainment and Recreational Activities to see what decisions can be taken to tackle this problem. 

AGREEMENTS OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL

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

On the one hand, the spokesman announced that the real-time subtitling solution would be launched today during the press conference following the Governing Council. This will mean that appearances by the Basque Government spokesperson —always accompanied by another minister— reporting on the agreements adopted and answering questions from the media can now be followed by streaming with subtitles on the Basque Government's Open Government website.

Likewise, today's Governing Council rejected the creation of an Office for Good Practices and against Corruption proposed by EH Bildu, thus expressing its opposition to taking into consideration the bill for the creation of this body. According to Zupiria, this is practically the same initiative presented by this parliamentary group in 2020 and which was already rejected then, and the reason is similar to the current one, i.e. the fact that in the Basque Autonomous Community there is currently a legal and institutional structure in force and active to favour transparency and prevent and combat corruption in Basque public administrations.

In the field of education, the government has approved direct subsidies to 21 state-subsidised schools with special educational needs, with grants amounting to 2,200,000 euros. The purpose of this aid is to reinforce state-subsidised centres with special educational needs so that during this academic year they have an additional reinforcement teacher per line, with the aim of improving the attention given to students with specific educational support needs, thus contributing to equity in access to educational opportunities. “This Government is firmly committed to supporting all publicly funded schools where there is a high percentage of young people in a clearly vulnerable socio-educational situation in order to improve the school results of vulnerable students and increase the percentage of students who stay at school,” said Bingen Zupiria. 

In addition, at today's meeting it was decided that the amounts of the so-called ‘one-off payment’ aid for women victims of gender-based violence should be increased, in compliance with the provisions of the Organic Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence. This ‘one-off payment’ is intended to help women in this situation to become independent from their abuser and start a new life. Thus, for this year, the Government has earmarked 1.6 million euros to meet this demand, and it is worth remembering that all women who require this aid and meet the requirements will be able to access it, as the budget can be extended.