Government approves Comprehensive Plan to Support Families 2015-2017

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Council of Ministers approved the Comprehensive Plan to Support Families 2015-2017, with a budget of 5.4 billion euros for its first year and more than 225 measures.

Among these, both the Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, and the Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality, Alfonso Alonso, highlighted those measures designed to support maternity and acknowledge the role of those women that decide to have children.

In this regard, the plan proposes to introduce a supplementary payment to contributory pensions for women that have given birth to two or more children. This retirement supplement (or supplement to the widowhood or incapacity pension) applies to new pensions. The government will pass on this proposal to the Toledo Pact Parliamentary Committee of the Lower House of Parliament for its debate and subsequent adoption, with the aim of it coming into force early next year.

Alfonso Alonso remarked that women who have given birth to two or more children and retire as from 1 January 2016 will see their pension increase by 5%; those who have given birth to three children by 10%, and those who have given birth to four or more by 15%.

Pool MoncloaAccording to the minister, this measure is an acknowledgment of equality and maternity and a commitment to the long-term sustainability of the pension system. In turn, it corrects the way women are "doubly penalised" as a result of maternity: through lower salaries or careers with shorter or discontinuous contribution periods and, as a consequence thereof, lower pensions.

The minister pointed out that the average contribution period for a man is 40.6 years on average compared with 31.3 for women. In December 2014, the average pension for a man amounted to 1,503 euros, while for women it stood at 1,096 euros, 37% less.

Through the measures proposed on Thursday, women will see their pensions rise each year. In 2016, there will be 123,357 beneficiaries, with an estimated cost of 51 million euros. In 2017, this will stand at 241,000. In 2018, the number of beneficiaries will rise to 350,000 and in 2019 to 455,000.

Government's commitment to the family

Alfonso Alonso recalled that the plan responds to the government's commitment to integrate and strengthen family protection policies. "This is not a sector issue, the family is an issue that affects everyone and hence it is a primary policy and a priority for the government, and this must pervade all our actions in a cross-cutting manner".

The minister underlined that 75% of the 225 measures contained in the plan have already been approved or are now being applied. By way of example, he cited the 1,200-euro annual subsidy for large families, for persons with disabilities under their charge and single-parent families, all contained in the Tax Reform and being applied as from 1 January.

The plan derives from a diagnosis of a reality which is, in his opinion, "worrying", given that the number of households has increased but the average size has decreased. "The tendency is for more but smaller households, more childless families, and more people that live alone. I believe that we must help encourage households to be larger, to form more family units and increase the birth rate because the number of new-borns has been falling - to 425,000 in 2013 - and our fertility rate, which is below 1.3%, is among the lowest in the world. We are the country in the world where people live the longest and have the fewest children".

Alfonso Alonso highlighted that on average women have their first child at the age of 31.6 which, in his opinion is "a very late age", and couples with three children only represent 3.3% of households, which he consider to be "very low". Hence, "we need to boost family policies, we truly need to protect them and acknowledge that they are the ones who have had to bear the brunt of the crisis", he said.

The minister explained that the plan is structured along seven strategic lines: the socio-economic protection of families; reconciliation and co-responsibility; support for maternity and a favourable environment for family life; positive parenthood; support for measures with special needs; family policies and result-based assessments.

Advance payments for cinema industry

Pool MoncloaThe Council of Ministers amended the Cinema Act to establish a new system of subsidies for the production of feature-length films.

The Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, José Ignacio Wert, explained that at present, the lion's share of the Cinematography Protection Fund is earmarked for paying off loans that producers have used to make films. These subsidies depend on two factors that are unknown a priori: the final investment in the film and box office returns; hence these are paid at least two years after they come out. According to the minister, "this system has proven to be completely useless in providing our cinema industry with more muscle" and leads to the production of a number of films that is "clearly excessive".

The new model replaces these subsidies with other advance payments for the production of feature-length films based on their project, which are awarded under a competition -based system José Ignacio Wert highlighted that they will be granted "taking into account a series of clearly defined objective parameters" orientated towards "the industrial strengthening of Spanish cinema". Factors such as the viability of the project, the capacity of the producers to distribute the film and attract cinema-goers, its international impact, co-production and shooting the film in Spain will be taken into account.

This system will be applied as from January 2016. For a transitional period of three years, rounds of aid under the previous system will continue to be offered to those films initiated prior to this date. Moreover, subsidies for non-commercial cinema and short films will be maintained and the industry will be supported in terms of its presence at film festivals.

José Ignacio Wert underlined that the work of the Mixed Committee for Cinema and Audiovisual Arts has been fundamental in order to prepare the new model which has been under way since 2012 through the participation of the ministerial departments with competency in this field and all the sectors of the cinematographic industry.

Extraordinary loans and tax breaks

Also in relation to aid for the cinema industry, the Council of Ministers approved a supplementary extraordinary loan for the sum of 16 million euros to make an outstanding repayment for 2014 and to complete the budgetary needs for 2015. The budget for the Cinematography Protection Fund for this year will amount to 52.5 million euros.

The Minister for Education, Culture and Sport recalled that, within this policy of promoting the cinema industry, modifications to Corporate Income Tax have made tax breaks for production permanent and has increased them by two points.

Boosting self-employment and the social economy

Pool MoncloaThe Vice-President of the Government highlighted the submission to Parliament, after receiving a ruling and a global positive assessment from the Economic and Social Council, of "two very important draft laws to drive growth and create jobs": the Draft Law to Boost Self-employment and the Social Economy and, the Draft Law on Worker-Owned Companies and Worker-Participated Companies, tackled in their initial stage by the Council of Ministers on 24 April.

The first draft law, according to Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, modifies and updates the current legislation on self-employment: in one single text it contains the incentives in place to date, extends some of them to other groups and implements new measures to drive self-employment and the social economy.

Hence, the new legislation extends the flat-rate for the self-employed to those that start their own activity and subsequently hire other workers, introduces the possibility of capitalising up to 100% unemployment benefits regardless of age and allows economically-dependent independent contractors to hire a worker under certain circumstances related to the reconciliation of work/family life.

As regards the social economy, with the aim of incorporating new partners to these companies, the draft law extends discounts to all age brackets. It also contains a new discount for business quotas for workers of ordinary companies coming from a labour-insertion company.

As regards the Draft Law on Worker-Owned Companies and Worker-Participated Companies, the Vice-President of the Government pointed out that the new legislation adapts to the new economic reality. The text defines labour-owned companies as those mercantile entities in which the partners hold at least 50% of the share capital and 50% of the voting rights. One of the new features is the incorporation, for the first time, of the definition of worker-participated company. The new law, pointed out Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, "grants workers a greater role in the decision-making processes of the company".

PIVE 8 Plan

Pool MoncloaThe Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree renewing the Efficient Vehicle Incentive Programme, PIVE 8 Plan, in light of the success of the previous rounds and the positive effect on the economy and the environment. This plan, which is the last of the series, has a provision of 225 million euros.

The Vice-President of the Government highlighted that once the eighth round has concluded, some 1,185,000 old vehicles will have been replaced by new ones. Moreover, an annual saving of 412 million litres of fuel will have been made, which means the importation of some 2.5 million barrels less of petrol per annum and a reduction of some 850,000 tonnes of CO2.

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría added that these plans have allowed the market to accumulate 19 continuous months of growth and a 30.5% increase in new car registrations in the month of March. In 2014, close on 1 million new vehicles were registered.

The PIVE 8 Plan maintains the main characteristics of its predecessor, although one new feature is that the beneficiary will obtain a subsidy of 750 euros provided by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, and another 750 euros by the manufacturer or car showroom.

Other agreements

The Vice-President of the Government reported on the concession of extraordinary credits and supplementary credits under the State budget to various ministerial departments. Among these, she highlighted a supplementary credit of 17.82 billion euros to complete the State's contribution to the Fund to Finance Regional Governments. She also highlighted the extraordinary credit for the sum of 10 million euros to implement investments earmarked to help fight terrorism.

On another note, the government authorised the specific procedures to start work on the shuttle train at Barcelona Airport.

Current affairs

Pool MoncloaSáenz de Santamaría began her presentation at the press briefing with an assessment of the estimates made on Wednesday by Eurostat on growth trends in the Eurozone. In the first quarter of 2015, the European Union grew by 0.4% while Spain grew by 0.9%, in other words, "double the main economies in the Eurozone". These figures back the government's decision to "continue with the National Reform Plan sent to Brussels barely two weeks ago", she stated.

In response to questions from the press, the Vice-President of the Government expressed the government's concern over the way in which, in accordance with the content of a judicial ruling, the operation of the mine in Aznalcóllar has been awarded without respecting the principle of a competition -based award. Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría added that the Regional Government of Andalusia must provide an explanation of the procedure followed and on the future outlook for a project that affects a great many jobs.

As regards the difficulties being had by Susana Díaz to ensure her investiture and form a government in the autonomous region of Andalusia, she claimed that "the responsibility lies with the person who decided to dissolve" the Regional Parliament when this was neither essential nor indeed necessary. "What began as a mistake has become a personal failure", she concluded.

In relation to the European Commission's measures to distribute immigrants among the various countries of the EU, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría stated that the government's contribution is "positive and to a very broad extent", organising the flow of migrants and thus fostering their integration within a framework of "co-operation and co-ordination with the countries of origin and transit" of these people.

The Minister for Education, Culture and Sport expressed the government's observance of the decision handed down by the National High Court to suspend the footballer's strike, "as just another legal ruling". Furthermore, he referred to the major effort made by the government to "ensure a far-reaching agreement" between the Spanish Footballer's Association and the Professional Football League.