Government improves legislation on prevention and control of pollution

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Council of Ministers approved the recast text of the Law on Pollution Prevention and Control with the aim of improving regulatory quality and legal security on the matter. This document brings the different legislative regulations in force into one single text that affect the principle of the prevention and control of pollution generated by the more than 6,000 installations that exist in Spain.

The Minister for Education, Culture and Sport and Government Spokesperson stressed the importance of the new legislation for the "sake of clarity and transparency" and recalled the government's commitment and sensitivity to the fight against climate change.

The government also approved the quality standards for table olives, flours, meal and other products derived from milling cereals, beer and malt drinks. The updated legislation will allow competitiveness to be improved in a sector which, as highlighted by the minister, represents 8.5% of GDP and provides jobs for two and a half million people. "Quality standards are necessary to continue maintaining this privileged position in this agri-food sector characterised not only by its size, but, above all, but its quality", added Íñigo Méndez de Vigo.

On the subject of agriculture, the Government Spokesperson also pointed to the approval of the 38th Combined Agricultural Insurance Plan which, in his opinion, is "a very effective tool for guaranteeing the income of agricultural producers".

The budget allocated to subsidising the cost of agricultural insurance policies amounts to more than 211 million euros, consolidated through the 6% increase contained in the 2016 General State Budget. The new plan continues to revise and improve the different lines of insurance and includes the update in its data bases.

General State Budget

Pool Moncloa/J.M.CuadradoAt the start of his participation in the press briefing following the Council of Ministers, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo expressed the government's satisfaction at the approval of the budget stability targets and ceiling on spending for 2017, "by a large majority" in the Lower House of Parliament.

The minister said that "this is good news for Spain because it strengthens the framework of certainty, security and confidence in our economy". In his opinion, the agreement reached on Thursday "is a good first step but insufficient as yet" to present the Budget.

When asked about the schedule for its approval, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo announced that, now that the ceiling on spending has been approved, meetings will be held next week with the Provincial Treasuries and with the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council with the aim of distributing the deficit among the regional governments and specifying the contribution from the Regional Liquidity Fund (Spanish acronym: FLA).

"In my opinion it is too soon to think that a draft General State Budget will be drawn up by January; I believe that this will require more time, a great deal of dialogue and the reaching of a consensus. That time will be well spent if an agreement is reached. I would prefer to spend more time in reaching a good agreement than do things too hastily", he stressed.

Current affairs

The Government Spokesperson confirmed that paternity leave will be increased from two to four weeks as from 1 January. "This is a measure that aims to enhance the necessary reconciliation between work and home life". In this regard, he also defended the proposal made this week by the Minister for Employment and Social Security, Fátima Báñez, consisting of ending the working day at six pm.

Íñigo Méndez de Vigo remarked that it is not a question of imposing this decision, but rather of adopting it together with the other political forces after debating the issue with all of the sectors involved. He also acknowledged that the measure requires a change of mentality, which "will also mean allowing workers and employers to take these decisions" and that it will probably be more difficult to apply this in the services sector.

Pool Moncloa/J.M.CuadradoThe Government Spokesperson recalled that on Monday, Mariano Rajoy called the 6th Conference of Regional Presidents for 17 January, "thus opening up dialogue with the regional governments". Íñigo Méndez de Vigo pointed out that the government wishes to make this an institutional meeting because both the Central Government and the regional governments make up "the State, and we must all tackle our commitments and responsibilities together from an approach of institutional loyalty, inter-regional solidarity and political cooperation".

With the aim of preparing for this meeting, he announced that the Vice-President of the Government has called the presidential councillors of the regional governments for a meeting on 21 December. In his opinion, this demonstrates the "open nature" with which the government is approaching this conference, since the agenda will not be set until after this meeting is held.

The minister underlined the importance of all the regional presidents attending this meeting because those issues that affect the people of Spain as a whole will be discussed there. "When you are talking about the essential public services that affect all our citizens, it is good for the presidents of the regional governments, who have many of these powers assigned to them, and that then require significant funding to implement them, to attend, debate, deliberate and listen to each other", he argued.

When asked about the statements made by the President of the Regional Parliament of Catalonia, Carme Forcadell, describing the fact that she had to respond to charges of the offences of disobedience and prevarication on Friday morning as an "attack on democracy", the Government Spokesperson stressed that "justice is independent in Spain and does not respond to any type of pressure". Any attempt to argue the contrary, he said, "is not only false, but also unfair on the judges that professionally perform their duties". Íñigo Méndez de Vigo added that there is no impunity in Spain. "No-one can have carte blanche to disobey the law or to act with impunity, and still less those who perform a public function".