The Council of Ministers once again focused its attention on those social groups most affected by the economic crisis and those in a more severe situation of social vulnerability. Therefore, approval was granted for those measures that will best enhance and support this year’s National Action Plan for Social Inclusion.

The First Vice-President of the Government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, emphasised that the new initiatives are focused on areas such as direct care to citizens at risk of social exclusion and are committed to providing more resources to local organisations and organisations aimed at local action.

Furthermore, they enhance the development of support bodies such as special employment centres, associations, labour market insertion companies and cooperatives.

Ms Fernández de la Vega pointed out that “within the Local Employment and Sustainability State Fund, Local Councils will be implementing over 2,000 social inclusion programs for a value of almost 300 million euros that will benefit more than one million people”.

During her press conference with the Vice-President, the Minister for Health and Social Policy, Trinidad Jiménez, stressed that, despite the economic crisis, “the Government is committed to social policies and to maintaining social protection”.
According to the Minister, the new measures approved on Friday are aimed at strengthening the direct care provided by Local Councils and NGOs to those people who find themselves at risk of social exclusion.

Trinidad Jiménez explained that the Government will provide Local Councils with “specific funding for social inclusion programs”. More precisely, over 700 million euros will be given to Local Councils from the Local Employment and Sustainability State Fund, of which 300 million euros will be aimed at the development of 2,150 programs that could benefit over one million people.

Furthermore, the Minister stated that the resources given to NGOs will also be increased thanks to the creation of “an extraordinary fund of 30 million euros” for the development of active inclusion programs that will combine stimulation for employment with adequate income coverage and access to quality services.

The Minister for Health and Social Policy also indicated that the Government will increase the percentage and amount of the funding aimed at social exclusion programs, which currently stands at 0.7% of IRPF [Spanish Personal Income Tax].

She also said that this 0.7% will amount to some 205 million euros this year, which “is the largest sum ever distributed in the history of this program” and 14 million euros more than was given to NGOs in 2009.

Consequently, these organisations will be able to provide their services to 485,000 more people and the total number of services may well exceed 5,700,000.

The third sector and the Gypsy Community

The Minister reminded her audience that the President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announced last week that the Government intends to present a draft bill for the Social Economy Act to the Council of Ministers, a law that will regulate Third Sector organisations and foster their development.

This third sector consists of a wide range of business entities and other organisations, such as special employment centres, labour market insertion companies, cooperatives and foundations.

According to Ms Jiménez, the Government understands that “they are an extraordinary source of enrichment and job creation because they represent 10% of domestic employment and 5% of GDP”.

Furthermore, in order to strengthen the work of these organisations, the Minister announced that social criteria are going to be introduced into public employment contracts to give preference during tender procedures to those companies in which the disabled account for more than 2% of staff.

There will also be incentives for the hiring of people at risk of social exclusion by proposing an agreement, within the scope of social dialogue, on an increase to tax credit schemes for those employment contracts arranged through the Labour Market Insertion Companies Act.

Trinidad Jiménez also announced that a specific plan for the development of the Gypsy Community over the 2010-2012 period will be approved within two months.

Social Security Reserve Fund

The Council of Ministers approved a provision of 1,740 million euros to the Social Security Reserve Fund to be taken from the 2008 surpluses. As a result of this additional provision, the so-called “pensions nest egg” will now exceed 62,000 million euros and equate to 5.65% of GDP.

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega underlined that “this is yet another example of the good health currently enjoyed by our pension system”.

Furthermore, the Government agreed on the distribution of three million euros to the Autonomous Regions for managing those employment and training policies that improve the employability of people.

The Government also approved a Royal Decree by means of which measures are established to facilitate reinsertion into the labour market and provide special financial aid to the employees of SINTEL who were affected at the time by redundancy plans. More precisely, specific measures have been established to facilitate the employment and relocation of these workers, as well as special financial aid for the unemployed over the age of 52.

Following a proposal from the Minister for Work, Celestino Corbacho, the Government has examined the creation of a new micro-company consultancy service on the topic of occupational health and safety that will soon begin to operate from the National Occupational Health and Hygiene Institute in collaboration with the Autonomous Regions.

The Vice-President of the Government explained that this service, called ‘Prevención10.es’, “will be a free service and made available to the more than one million companies employing up to 10 people that currently exist in Spain”.

He added that its objective is “to achieve a constant and significant reduction to the occupational accident index and to improve occupational health and hygiene conditions”.

Protection of the marine environment

The Council of Ministers approved submission to the Cortes Generales [Spanish Parliament] of the bill for a Marine Environment Protection Act, which will cover issues related to the protection of marine environments not already governed by Spanish legislation.

The Vice-President of the Government considers that this Bill includes environmental criteria on the use of marine environments, establishes strategies and guarantees the good condition of our seas, their protection and the recovery of their ecosystems, as well as contributing to the prevention and elimination of pollution.

Floods in Andalusia

The Council of Ministers approved a resolution whereby the Minister for the Interior will assess the damage caused by the floods in Andalusia with the utmost urgency and process the financial aid provided for by the Royal Decree of 18 March 2005.

Furthermore, the Government will increase this financial aid through the inclusion of Andalusia into the Emergency Measures Act to alleviate the damage caused by the recent natural catastrophes.

Ms Fernández de la Vega also conveyed the solidarity, support and concern of the Government to those municipal areas of Andalusia affected by the floods.

The Vice-President also wanted to press for calm ahead of the storm that was to affect the Canary Islands over the subsequent hours and reach the Spanish mainland over the following weekend.

“The pertinent warnings have already been issued in every Autonomous Region. The leaders of the various authorities are working together and all the relevant preventive measures are in place”, she said.

Other agreements

• Approval of the legislation on security in the Armed Forces
• Approval of the Regulations for the Prevention of Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport
• Analysis of a report on the new legislation to improve air safety