The Government of Spain approves an employment plan for the municipalities affected by the DANA

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Minister for Work and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, together with the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría, and the Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños (Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez)

The Council of Ministers has approved an employment plan to aid the recovery following the damage caused by the DANA in the worst affected municipalities (75 in the Valencia region, 2 in Castilla-La Mancha and 1 in Andalusia). The plan, designed by the Ministry of Work and Social Economy, will see 50 million euros distributed among these municipalities to recruit people who are unable to do their jobs because of the DANA and to step up construction work in these areas.

Targeted employment plan for the areas affected by the DANA

The Second Vice-President and Minister for Work and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, has framed the plan within the new Employment Law and thanked the municipalities and social agents for their collaboration. The beneficiary areas are home to more than one million people and represent around one third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Valencian Community and a quarter of the region's working population. The Vice-President explained that the plan is adapted to the unique characteristics of these localities, whose commercial and productive activity is centred on retail trade, agriculture, rubber and plastics, construction and the food industry.

The main criterion for the distribution of funds is the needs of each municipality to repair the damage. Other criteria such as population and registered unemployment have also been taken into account in the distribution. Local councils will be responsible for selecting recruits, with the competences and data of the public employment services of the Generalitat Valenciana.

The process will be articulated through the employment activation programme, with contracts of between 3 and 6 months. Yolanda Díaz stressed that the plan is particularly aimed at two groups, in line with the policies approved at the Sectoral Conference on Employment and Labour Affairs for the country as a whole: people over 52 years of age and young people under 30.

Deployment of labour reform and creation of climate permits

The Second Vice-President and Minister for Work and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, during her speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Second Vice-President defended the fact that the government has been deploying "an unprecedented labour shield" since the devastation caused by the DANA and has also incorporated "new legislative approaches" to deal with climate emergencies. "The regulations are very important for people's lives, what we have done since 29 October in Valencia is to roll out the labour reform," she said.

Yolanda Díaz mentioned, in particular, the application of the ERTE due to force majeure, the annulment of dismissals, remote working, the protection of domestic workers, the benefit for self-employed workers due to cessation of activity and the supplement to the "Me cuida" Plan. She also highlighted the creation of climate permits, which "ensure workers can be retained and provide companies with certainty", a system that has only been legislated in Spain and Canada, according to the vice-president. "This is what useful politics is all about", she concluded.

Right to rectification

The Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Council of Ministers analysed the preliminary draft of the Organic Law regulating the right to rectification, which forms part of the Action Plan for Democracy which the Government is promoting and which aims to reinforce both the right to truthful information and the right to honour.

The Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños, explained that the current Organic Law regulating the Right to Rectification dates back to 1984, which is why it needs to be modernised and adapted to the digital environment. According to the minister, the future regulation will improve public debate and ensure that citizens can exercise their right to rectification more easily: "We want to promote a higher quality of public debate. We want to facilitate and guarantee citizens' right to rectification when they are affected by information that is false, inaccurate or a hoax, that is to say, a lie.

In addition, the regulation will encourage the media to "extend good practices to others who all too often publish news and information that are inaccurate or outright false," Bolaños said.

What's new in the future law?

The two key innovations of the future law are that it takes into account new forms of information and communication and that it introduces adjustments to facilitate and speed up the right to rectification. "We are streamlining procedures, we are adapting to the current reality and we are expressly regulating digital environments and digital platforms that today provide information and disseminate information," the minister reiterated.

Félix Bolaños explained that the regulation affects traditional media and digital media and online platforms that disseminate information. It also covers relevant social network users (influencers), i.e. those who have more than 100,000 users on a single platform or more than 200,000 users across all their networks.

The minister argued that these people disseminate information that is spread more widely than that of many traditional media outlets, and maintained that "there are professionals spreading hoaxes and lies who every day sully our public debate with lies and falsehoods". Citizens will also be able to exercise the right to rectification of inaccurate information against them.

The rule requires media outlets and platforms to establish an easily accessible mechanism to make it easier to exercise the right to rectification. It also establishes the terms and deadline for disseminating the rectification, which should be made in full and with a similar prominence to that of the original publication. In addition, it establishes the obligation to provide notice that the information has been rectified on digital platforms and media and to link the rectification and the original text.

The regulation will speed up the judicial procedure in the event that the right to rectification is not fulfilled. The minister emphasised that "the requirement to provide a written response to the claim has been abolished, so oral proceedings can continue and the court ruling can be much quicker".

Bolaños also said that the regulation extends the time period for submitting the request for rectification. The current law establishes 7 days, the preliminary draft sets it at 10 days. In addition, the current law requires that the correction notice must necessarily be addressed to the director of the media outlet; this requirement in the future law will be optional because, according to the minister, there are pseudo-media outlets where it is difficult to identify who the director is.

The text also extends the range of people entitled to exercise the right to rectification, so that persons close to deceased citizens about whom false news is disseminated will be able to request rectification, and not only their heirs.

New tender for Muface 2025-2027 authorised

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, during her speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, announced that the Council of Ministers has authorised Muface to publish a new call for tenders before the end of the year for the 2025-2027 healthcare agreement with improved conditions for insurers. The new tender, the minister explained, comes after the insurers abandoned the previous tender and allows for a 33.5% increase.

"We are talking about an agreement worth 4.478 billion euros for the next three years, 957 million more than the current one," said Alegría, who gave assurance that with this tender the government is fulfilling its commitment to launch a new agreement before the end of 2024. The minister also conveyed a "message of calm" to all mutualists: "They will be guaranteed health care under the same conditions they currently enjoy until this contract is terminated".

Subsidy for Teruel and transfer for transport in Catalonia

During her speech at the press conference, Pilar Alegría explained that the Council of Ministers has approved the agreement to transfer 283 million euros to the Generalitat de Catalunya with the aim of financing the operating deficit of passenger transport services by train, suburban and regional services. A transfer that, Alegría stresses, reflects the government's commitments and agreements with the different political forces.

In addition, the Council of Ministers has also approved a subsidy of 30 million euros to finance the Teruel Investment Fund, which supports projects that promote economic activity in this province. "It is a very important and very welcome investment in Aragón", said Alegría, who affirmed that this allocation "will continue to make it possible to support economic and business development, social cohesion, innovation, culture and heritage in the province of Teruel".

New draft laws

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports reported that the Council of Ministers has dealt with two new draft bills in the economic field. On the one hand, the preliminary draft bill on the Digitalisation and Modernisation of the Financial System, a bill that, according to Pilar Alegría, will enable technological innovation to be promoted, competition to be fostered and the security of financial customers to be guaranteed. The goal of this future regulation is to ensure that the opportunities offered by new technologies are exploited to improve the provision of financial services, while mitigating potential risks.

The draft bill for the development of the regime of infringements and sanctions applicable to pan-European individual pension products was also analysed. This legislative initiative, which will allow compliance with EU Regulation 2019/1238, will ensure a high level of protection for consumers in Spain of such products from other jurisdictions in the EU. Harmonisation with the EU regulation will make it easier for consumers to make the most of these cross-border products, while ensuring a consistently high level of protection for savers in Spain.

Update on DANA grants: applications collected

During her speech, the government spokesperson reminded the audience that, at the moment, more than 19,000 State troops, including State Security Forces and Corps and other members of the Public Administration, are working on the reconstruction of the areas affected by the DANA.

Alegría also referred, in this context, to the total amount of aid and the distribution of this aid to those affected. According to the minister, more than 16.6 billion euros have been mobilised for the reconstruction of the affected municipalities, with more than 10 billion euros corresponding to direct aid. "To date, the Insurance Consortium has already paid more than 311 million euros to those affected, more than 10% of all registered claims," she explained, adding that the Tax Agency has already paid more than 250 million euros. "With this direct aid, a figure of over 600 million euros has now reached the people affected," she concluded.

Non official translation