The Government of Spain presents the future Law on Cybersecurity Coordination and Governance

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, and the Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has presented the draft bill for the Law on Security Coordination and Governance, proposed by his department and the Ministries of Defence and Digital Transformation and Public Function.

The law will be processed through the fast-track procedure and will seek the mandatory reports from different bodies and the opinion of the Council of State before the Council of Ministers approves its referral to Parliament for debate.

The Home Affairs Minister stressed that "the number, scale, sophistication, frequency and effects of cyber incidents represent a serious threat to the functioning of networks and information systems". They can disrupt economic activities, undermine user confidence and cause major damage to the economy, society and national security, requiring a sustained effort to address them.

The aim of the future law, according to the minister, is to "improve our security preparedness", and to incorporate into national law European regulations aimed at guaranteeing "a high common level of cybersecurity in all EU member states".

The cybersecurity regulations to be implemented will affect public and private entities that have their tax residence in Spain and those that have their tax residence in another EU country but carry out their activity or offer their services in Spain.

In both cases, as Grande-Marlaska explained, these entities must be in sectors considered highly critical for the normal functioning of the country: energy, transport, banking and financial markets, health, water, digital infrastructures and technological services, public administration entities and the nuclear industry. Other less critical services also covered by the future law are postal and courier services; waste management; food production, processing and distribution; digital service providers; scientific research; and private security.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers

The minister announced that the entities will have to carry out an individualised assessment of their risk and implement actions to guarantee and raise the security levels of their networks and information systems and prevent the risk of incidents. In addition, they will be obliged to report significant incidents in the operation or provision of services, whether they are their own or those of external providers. They should also communicate to the recipients of their services any cyber threats that may affect them and the measures or solutions to be implemented in response.

National Cyber Security Centre

With regard to the governance model of this institutional cybersecurity scheme, the National Cybersecurity Centre will be created, a body that will be responsible for the management, promotion and coordination of the mechanism and will be the management authority for any cybersecurity crises that may arise.

The regulation also lists the control authorities responsible for the supervision and execution of the cybersecurity mechanism: the Cybersecurity Coordination Office of the State Secretariat for Security; the National Cryptology Centre of the National Intelligence Centre; the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure; and the State Secretariat for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.

These control bodies will ensure compliance with cybersecurity standards, guidelines, specifications and technical instructions and will carry out the necessary checks, inspections, tests and reviews to verify security measures.

Comprehensive approach to public housing management

The Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, has presented to the Council of Ministers the report on public housing management in 2024 and forecasts for the first half of 2025.

Rodríguez pointed out that while the State Public Entity for Land (SEPES) was undertaking 10 actions at the beginning of 2024, by the end of that year this number had risen to 29, comprising 15,500 homes and a budget of more than 1.5 billion euros. In addition, at the last Council of Ministers meeting in 2024, short-term rentals were regulated, the Public Sector Contracts Act was simplified to promote public housing and income tax rebates for renovation were maintained.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers

As for the initiatives to be carried out in 2025, the minister assured that the incorporation of 2 million square metres of residential land and more than 3,000 state-owned housing units into the recently created public housing company will allow for a comprehensive approach to this policy. In this way, the new entity will be able to take charge of the whole process, from the provision of the land and its development to the handing over of the keys and the management of these homes for affordable rent.

The public housing company will also incorporate the dwellings currently held by SAREB, the manager of real estate assets resulting from the reorganisation of the financial sector. In the next six months, the government will also draw up a strategic plan for the public entity and will create a "transparent management portal" to manage public demand for these dwellings.

The Ministry's plans also include the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) for Housing, announced yesterday by the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. The aim is to promote innovation, agility and sustainability in housing construction.

Securing the constitutional mandate and preventing speculation

The goal, said Rodríguez, is to use all the resources of the General State Administration to facilitate access to decent and affordable housing and to guarantee the constitutional mandate. The minister also stressed the importance of "protecting" the public housing stock so that the government's "unprecedented effort" in this area "serves for ever" and prevents speculation.

As an example of the Government's "determined and comprehensive" policy, Isabel Rodríguez pointed to the unblocking of 'Operación Campamento', which will allow more than 10,700 "one hundred percent affordable" homes to be built on land that belonged to the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry is awaiting the completion of the authorisation of the urban development initiative by Madrid City Council. In February, work could begin on the urban development of this "complete neighbourhood, with sustainability criteria", according to the minister, who pointed out that, in addition, an agreement that is pending signature will respond to the neighbourhood's demand for the A-5 motorway to be moved underground and will extend it to the new neighbourhood.

The Minister for Housing maintained that, "throughout the legislature", the effects of the Executive's policies will be seen in the face of a problem that affects "thousands and thousands of Spaniards, especially younger people". Rodríguez called for the "loyal collaboration of all public administrations, autonomous communities and town councils" and "the support for the sector" to build the housing needed to meet the supply.

Declaration of the Real Casa de Correos as a 'Place of Memory'

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

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has reported that the Council of Ministers has approved the agreement in response to the plea in bar of jurisdiction formulated by the Community of Madrid regarding the declaration of the building of the regional presidency, the Real Casa de Correos, as a Place of Democratic Memory.

As the Government spokesperson explained, the Executive's response is that "there is no violation or encroachment of competences in the declaration of the building as a Place of Memory" and it therefore maintains the dossier for the declaration. Alegría stressed at this point that, according to the Democratic Memory Act, the current institutional and public service use of the Real Casa de Correos is compatible with the declaration, which "entails, among other things, simply placing a plaque on the façade to remember the people who were detained and mistreated there during Franco's dictatorship".

During that period, the building of the Real Casa de Correos housed the so-called Dirección General de Seguridad, which played a central role in political and social repression: in its basements, thousands of detainees were interrogated and subjected to torture for political and ideological reasons.

Non official translation