The Governing Council strengthens aid for the renovation of buildings and homes

• Lanbide's endowment is doubled to promote employment of young people
• Zupiria considers that the central government has room for improvement in the normalisation of the use of Basque in the administrations and public services that depend on the Spanish Government

The spokesperson for the Basque Government and minister of Culture and Linguistic Policy, Bingen Zupiria, has appeared at the usual press conference after the Governing Council meeting.  

As stated by the President (Lehendakari) in the General Policy Plenary last Thursday, the Government has given the green light in today's Governing Council meeting to increase spending to promote aid for the renovation of buildings and homes with an additional 7.35 million euros to be distributed. 400,000 euros will go to Araba, 4.2 million to Bizkaia and 2.75 million to Gipuzkoa.  This increase is in addition to the 29 million euros that the Housing department had available to date for these renovation tasks. The aid aims to improve conservation and habitability, accessibility or energy efficiency, among others.

 Likewise, today's meeting approved the increase by 6.2 million of the initial endowment planned by Lanbide for the programme that provides unemployed young people with a first professional experience in public administrations.  The wide demand for applications received has practically led to a doubling of the planned allocation, which now stands at 13.7 million euros for hiring unemployed young people between the ages of 16 and 30 by the public administrations and entities of the institutional, regional and local public sector of the Basque Autonomous Community. “It is about these people obtaining their first work experience, competencies and social and professional skills within the framework of the services provided by these administrations,” said Zupiria.

 The Governing Council has also authorised an allocation of 41 million euros to finance the collaborative research aid programme in strategic areas, known as Elkartek, for this year. It is intended for research projects with high industrial potential. The Elkartek aid programme is included in the Strategic Subsidy Plan of the Department for Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment and responds to the need to intensify collaboration between the agencies of the Basque Network for Science, Technology and Innovation. The ultimate goal is to position the Basque Country among the most innovative and advanced European regions.

Thirdly, for 2023, the Government has approved aid for the promotion, development and economic diversification of the rural municipalities included in the LEADER area, which is part of the European Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy for the years 2023-27. The LEADER programme for this year has a budget of 5.2 million euros and will be implemented in 1,273 municipal entities considered rural with a population of 261,066 inhabitants.

And finally, in relation to the primary sector, it has been agreed to allocate 600,000 euros to promote agricultural, food, fishery and forestry products of the Basque Country in foreign markets. This is the LEHIATU PROMOCIÓN programme, which aims to consolidate the knowledge and distribution of quality products from the Basque Country, as benchmarks for Basque food and gastronomy in the international framework.

Finally, the spokesman reported the appointment of Javier Diéguez Barriocanal as Director General of the Basque Cybersecurity Agency.