The Council of Ministers approved this Monday a new decree with 110 additional measures to deal with the emergency DANA with an investment of 3.765 million euros, which is added to the first package announced last week for a value of 10.609 million. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, reported on this new set of aid, which he divided into two blocks: one aimed at “expanding and strengthening the social shield” and another at “helping the productive fabric » from the affected areas.
In the first block, Sánchez announced the extension of aid for damage to homes to the owners who did not reside there, but had rented them. At the same time, the compensation for loss of property to tenants and non-essential property. Furthermore, “so that this aid arrives more quickly”, there will be “a 50% immediate deposit to all citizens” who request it, so that they do not have to wait for their file to be processed.
Also in order to facilitate the treatment process aid, the staff of government sub-delegations is temporarily expanded and service points are created in all post offices, in addition to opening a network of temporary offices in the municipalities concerned, starting with a dozen which will be operational from this same Monday.
On the other hand, Sánchez reported that the child aid supplement received by some 10,000 low-income families with minors in the affected areas was temporarily increased by 30%. It also expands the Mortgage Code of Good Practice which was created in 2022 during the inflation crisis so that households affected by DANA could freeze your mortgages for another 12 monthsonce the first year has passed, already included in last week’s decree.
The Director General also indicated that he had allowed 150 state-owned housing units located in or near areas affected by the storm to make them available to affected people “free of charge and immediately”. In the same spirit, the Government will allocate 25 million euros to buy housing and expand this park for affected families.
Measures for workers and consumers
On the other hand, Sánchez announced measures to strengthen worker protection. These include develop ERTE to apply them to all companies and all workers who have seen their activity seriously damaged by DANA, even if are not located in the municipalities affected.
In addition, it assimilates the temporary disability benefit to that of a work accident, thus removing the requirement of a certain number of previous years of contributions to be able to access it. At the same time, a new extraordinary partial termination benefit for self-employed workerswhich will allow them to make their activity compatible for three months with the benefit of aid, which will be equivalent to 50% of their contribution base.
At the same time, to “protect consumers” electricity and gas cuts are prohibited Affected households are allowed to modify and temporarily suspend their supply contracts and defer their bills without charge, and telecommunications operators and other services are required to compensate their customers for those they did not receive during the period. disaster.
According to Sánchez, with this “social shield” and adding the two decrees approved so far, the government estimates that it will be able to help some 400,000 workers to maintain their income, some 30,000 companies to reactivate their activity and 100,000 households to cover their expenses. basic needs.
Aid for the productive fabric
Concerning the second package of measures approved this Monday, aimed at helping the productive fabric, this concerns in particular aid to the agricultural sectorwith the creation of a direct aid line of 200 million for farms which have suffered damage which prevents them from carrying out the next campaign normally or which have losses of productive potential greater than 40%. In addition, an additional ICO MAPA SAECA credit line of 60 million euros is launched for farmers and breeders and a program to repair agricultural infrastructure such as roads, terraces and irrigation systems of 175 million euros. euros, which will be executed by TRAGSA.
The Council of Ministers also activated the first tranche of 1,000 million ICO credits announced last week a line of guarantees which will cover 80% of the total loan amount so that households, businesses and the self-employed can access aid, subsidies and compensation as quickly as possible and undertake the investments they need. In addition, according to Sánchez, aid, execution deadlines and conditions of projects for industrial companies are relaxed, the first step is taken to implement a 45 million plan for the restoration of the Albufera and the basins affected rivers. the flood and almost two million euros in direct aid are established for the cultural activity affected by DANA.
Finally, this Monday’s decree allows a game of 500 million euros to finance a Mud Action Plan intended to remove accumulated debris and repair the water networks of the affected municipalities.
