The Government brings forward to January aid to SMEs

• Gauzatu Industria will get 28,000,000 Euros and Elkartek will get 44.000,000 Euros
• Applications will be submitted at the beginning of the year 2024, which will enable companies to get the aid in the first half of the year
• In January there will be an exhaustive presentation of the more than 80 business aid programs that have been planned for next year and that together exceed 600 million Euros

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 meeting, together with the General Secretary for Social Transition and Agenda 2030, Jonan Fernández, who presented the decree governing aid to the EMANTZIPA programme.

AID TO SMEs

Zupiria explained that the Governing Council has given its approval to anticipate the calls for the Elkartek and Gauzatu Industria SME aid programs, promoted by the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment. Gauzatu Industria will get 28,000,000 Euros to promote the creation and development of technology-based and/or innovative SMEs and Elkartek will get 44,000,000 Euros to support collaborative research in strategic areas for SMEs. In both cases, applications will be submitted at the beginning of 2024, which will enable companies to receive aid in the first half of the year. “In both calls for grants, the SPRI is getting involved as a collaborating entity, carrying out the tasks of receiving, evaluating and reviewing the projects. In January, there will be an exhaustive presentation of the more than 80 company aid programs that have been planned for next year, which together exceed 600 million Euros. As in previous editions, these and other aid programs for SMEs will be presented in briefings at the beginning of 2024,” said the spokesperson.

EMANTZIPA program to favour youth emancipation

The Basque Government today approved, at the proposal of President Iñigo Urkullu, the Decree of the Emantzipa Programme that regulates aid to promote youth emancipation, direct economic aid of 300 Euros per month for two years for young people between the ages of 25 and 29, who have started or are about to start an emancipation process. “The Emantzipa Program is part of the Basque Strategy 2030 to promote youth emancipation, approved on March 21; its objective is to promote youth emancipation, through a boost or support when it is most necessary and appropriate. The goal for 2030 is to reduce the average age of emancipation to 28 years and increase the emancipation rate to 50%, " said Fernández.

“It should be borne in mind that the majority of young people in the Basque Country are emancipated around the age of 30 or after this age. Between the ages of 25 and 29, they face greater difficulties. In this age group, the percentage of emancipated people remains below 32.8%,” said the Secretary General for Social Transition and the 2030 Agenda. That is why the direct objective of this benefit is to contribute to facilitating or consolidating the processes of youth emancipation. To do this, the 2024 budget for this Emantzipa Program is 53 million, the aid can be requested from February 20, 2024 and it is expected that more than 15,000 young people will access this aid in the first year.

AGREEMENTS OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL

As usual, the spokesman provided information on other issues discussed and approved in the Governing Council meeting.

The Governing Council approved the signing of the collaboration agreement between the General Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and the Provincial Council of Araba to share the TETRA radio communications network for its internal communications. In this way, the regional entity will be able to access this network to use it in services such as urgent health transport, signalling and communications of railway and tramway systems, data transport between meteorological and environmental stations, services for road and highway communications, hydraulic works and fire stations, among others. “TETRA favours the interconnection of voice and data through the Administration's telecommunications network, which allows the sharing of public resources. This network is managed by Itelazpi, which is the Basque public company aimed at providing services carrying radio and television signals and public communications services,” explained Zupiria.

In other news, the Government has agreed on direct subsidies to public transport operators in the Basque Country to support the financing of the costs involved in applying the 50% travel discounts that have been in force since September 2022. The aid approved today corresponds to the second half of 2023 and amounts to 9.2 million Euros. Depending on the organisation that has been proposed for these public transport travel bonuses of 50%, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility’s will pay a bonus of 30%, while, according to the agreement reached with the Basque Transport Authority, the Basque Government will take on 10% and the administrations on which each operator depends on the remaining 10%. Of the 9.2 million Euros that the Basque Government has, 2 million are allocated to the City Councils, 3.7 to the Provincial Councils and 3 to the Bizkaia Transport Consortium (for the Bilbao Metro). To these amounts are added the 9 million Euros of the first half of 2023 and the 6 of the last quarter of 2022. That is, in total the Basque Government has contributed 23 million to the public transport bonus.

Finally, at the last meeting of the year, the Governing Council approved several subsidies linked to the Basque audiovisual sector that will respond to the needs of the new generations. These direct grants, promoted by the Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy, seek to provide new professionals with tools that allow their growth in the shortest possible time for the development of creativity, entrepreneurship and professionalisation. A total of 820,000 Euros will be allocated in the period 2023-2024. The funding approved today will contribute to the creation of the “Ikusmira berriak” [new vision] project of the San Sebastian International Film Festival. It will serve to promote the training environment known as “ZINEBI Networking: cradle of documentaries”; the development of artistic and experimental films known as “Dirdira Lab”; the financing of the “Tabakalera Lab” project; the implementation of the audiovisual project “Noka Industry” and “ARENA”, a project on new narratives.