The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, appeared this Wednesday at his own request in the Congress of Deputies to take stock of the management of DANA and the aid already deployed by the Executive to alleviate the damage in the affected areas, mainly in the province of Valencia. Furthermore, Sánchez has taken the opportunity to announce a new package of measures – the third – that the Government will approve this Thursday in an extraordinary Council of Ministers.
This new plan “will consist of new aid, new credit instruments and legal facilities of various types for a total value of 2,274 million euros,” Sánchez explained in the Lower House. The package contains “60 measures designed to accelerate the return to normality” of the areas affected by the tragedy and is aimed at “three main objectives,” said Sánchez: “Citizens, the vehicle fleet and the productive fabric.”
Although it will be tomorrow, after the Council of Ministers, when the Government exhaustively details this new aid, Sánchez has already advanced some of the main measures in Congress, divided into three large blocks:
Aid to citizens
- People other than the cohabitants may obtain aid for death, and there will also be the possibility that the relatives of the deceased may also receive aid for damage to the home.
- An aid line of 19 million euros will be approved to cover the costs of replacing textbooks and school or study materials for students and families with student children residing in the affected municipalities.
- The exceptional consideration of a situation assimilated to a work accident in the processes of temporary disability, and pensions for permanent disability, death and survival, caused by the DANA, will be extended until December 31.
- The benefit for cessation of self-employed activity will be extended to all those who are covered by the so-called “flat rate” contribution
- A new regime will be approved for the activation of protocols in the event of disasters within companies, which guarantees the participation of worker representatives
Aid for the recovery of the mobile fleet
Sánchez has pointed out that it is estimated that there are more than 120,000 vehicles affected by DANA, “most of them as a total accident”, and has stressed the importance of these cars so that people can “recover their daily lives or reopen their business.” Therefore:
- A plan of 465 million euros will be approved for the renewal of the vehicle fleet damaged by DANA: citizens who need to buy a vehicle – not necessarily new – will be able to receive direct aid of up to 10,000 euros that will not have to be returned, and that can be add to the compensation that the Government-dependent Insurance Compensation Consortium is already beginning to pay. The aid may even be received retroactively for those people who have purchased vehicles since October 29 to replace another accident.
Aid to relaunch economic activity
Regarding the measures for companies that will be approved in this third package, Sánchez has announced:
- A new line of 1,200 million will be activated so that the self-employed and industrial and tourist companies can repair their facilities, equipment and product stocks, and can make new investments
- A ‘fast track’ will be enabled for preferential financing of reconstruction operations and recovery of innovative and technological capacities in the affected areas
- In the commercial sphere, a line of 240 million will be launched for the reactivation of local commerce, with aid aimed at alleviating material damage to business assets, and another ICEX line aimed at facilitating the internationalization of the activity of companies affected by DANA.
- A new line of subsidized loans will be created for affected SMEs that want to acquire cutting-edge technology and machinery for a total of 300 million euros. Companies will be able to obtain loans of up to 6 million euros “under very advantageous conditions,” Sánchez assured.
The president recalled that this new aid package is added to two others already approved at the beginning of the month, bringing the figure mobilized by the Government to more than 16.6 billion euros, as part of the Immediate Response Plan, Reconstruction and Relaunch for areas affected by DANA. Sánchez has also insisted that “after this third package, there will be as many as necessary.” “When the lights are gone, the State will still be there. As long as it takes. With the resources that are necessary,” said Pedro Sánchez.
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