The Basque Government approves the Draft Basque Act on Cooperation and Solidarity
- The Basque Executive earmarks nearly 30.5 million euros to alleviate the negative effects of the Ukrainian invasion on the most affected sectors of the Basque Food Chain
The spokesperson of 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 Equality, Justice and Social Policy, Nerea Melgosa.
The Minister of Equality, Justice and Social Policies has presented the draft Basque Act on Cooperation and Solidarity approved today by the Governing Council. As Nerea Melgosa explained, the future act will establish a new legal framework for Basque cooperation and solidarity policy with the aim of tackling current global challenges more effectively, “providing a concept of development that places people and the planet at the centre, taking into account their diversity”. “With this new future Basque act on cooperation, the aim is for the Basque Country to take on the international development agendas as its own. We want to reinforce a commitment to solidarity based on our own identity: We promote quality decentralised cooperation, based on solidarity and solid public-social collaboration”, she pointed out.
Likewise, the minister stressed that the aim is also to mobilise all possible solidarity resources, with the aim of making progress in the consolidation of a new institutional architecture that improves coherence and co-responsibility among Basque cooperation agents, “bringing together the Basque public sector as a whole and the rest of the agents in favour of a policy of solidarity”.
The future act extends the scope of application to the three levels of Basque public administration, respecting their respective competences, autonomy and self-organisation.
AGREEMENTS OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL
As usual, the spokesperson, Bingen Zupiria, provided information on other issues discussed in the Governing Council meeting, including the following:
On the one hand, the Governing Council today approved the External Emergency Plans of the companies ACIDEKA S.A. (Zierbena), TUBACEX TUBOS INOXIDABLES S.A. (Amurrio and Laudio sites), REPSOL LNG HOLDING S.A. (Zierbena) and EXOLUM CORPORATION S.A. (Erribera Beitia and Zierbena sites). These external emergency plans are civil protection plans of a special nature and their purpose is to articulate the external response to certain hypotheses of accidents that may occur at these facilities with the consequent external effect on the company itself.
Likewise, the Government has today approved 3 million euros of aid for entrepreneurship in the Social Economy. As the spokesperson explained, on the one hand, the aim is to promote and strengthen the Basque public-private network of support for the creation of Social Economy companies and their subsequent consolidation, as well as the creation and promotion of Social Economy companies, and the consolidation of those that have recently been set up.
The Governing Council also approved a grant totalling 270,000 euros for the implementation of a project that will enable people with difficulties in accessing formal training, most of whom are women and immigrants, to obtain the Certificate in Social and Health Care for Dependent Persons in Places of Residence.
Linked to the Department of Public Governance and Self-Government, the Governing Council today approved the agreement authorising the lodging of an appeal of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional Court against several precepts of the State Act of 24 May on the Right to Housing.According to the technical report prepared by the Basque Government's Legal Service, which was mandated by Parliament to issue a report on the matter, it is considered that the State violates the Basque Country's competences in the field of housing. Specifically, a total of seven articles of the State Housing Act, one transitional provision, one additional provision and two final provisions are being challenged.
As regards the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment, the government has decided to allocate 30 million to the food sectors affected by the Ukrainian invasion through extraordinary aid. Spokesperson Bingen Zupiria stressed that since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, some activities in the food value chain have seen the price of raw materials skyrocket, which has had a significant impact on this activity. “The production costs of some products (oil, flour, packaging, for example) have risen considerably and the government considered it necessary to implement support measures to balance market supply and maintain the associated activities and jobs”, he said.
In the field of education, the Governing Council authorised an increase of almost 11 million euros in the direct subsidy granted to the UPV/EHU to finance the construction of the new building for the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing.The total budget for this building was 55,600,000 euros, but since the second half of 2021 energy prices have risen, which has led to an increase in the price of raw materials. In view of this situation, the successful bidder informed the UPV/EHU that it was impossible to carry out the work with the budget set and it was considered necessary to issue a new tender, with a 20% higher budget than the previous one.
In addition, the Government has today authorised the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport to increase its overall allocation by 67 million euros. Part of this money, 45 million, will go to reinforce housing policies and the rest to improve the public transport service. Among other measures, Zupiria detailed that the public company Euskotren will receive 22 million euros for the purchase of five railway units, the motorisation of seven trains that will cover the service of line 5 of the Bilbao underground will also be carried out and 45 million euros will be allocated to reinforce housing policies in terms of affordable renting and the rehabilitation of the housing stock.
In relation to this Department, the Council has also approved the agreement with the City Council of Pasaia and the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to allocate a grant of 5.8 million euros to reinforce the comprehensive urban rehabilitation project in the Andonaegi neighbourhood in terms of energy efficiency through the Next Generation EU funds.
Finally, in the cultural field, the Government has today approved a grant of almost 1.5 million euros for the “Zallako Artisten Gunea”. The City Council of Zalla will receive the grant with the aim of completing the creation of a space for cultural and creative industries, the “Zallako Artisten Gunea”, in the former La Guata cellulose factory in Zalla. The project is part of the so-called Preferential Action Areas (PAA), a special plan, included in the Berpiztu programme, for the revitalisation of disadvantaged counties, in this case Enkarterri, in Bizkaia.
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