New aid is also called for mining areas, with 28 million euros

MADRID, 23 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Institute for the Just Transition (ITJ), has published the provisional resolution proposals for aid for business projects and for small investment projects in municipalities included in the agreements. of Just Transition, according to a statement.

It is expected that all of the funds for the two lines will be awarded, endowed with 50 million euros, and that they will benefit 167 projects that will channel a total investment of 237 million and create some 1,200 jobs.

Thus, aid for business projects, called for by a total budget of 40 million, will support 40 projects linked to a mobilization of 209 million in investment and a commitment to create more than 900 jobs.

For its part, aid for small investment projects, with an allocation of 10 million, plans to support 127 projects, with a total investment of 28 million and the creation of approximately 280 jobs.

The objective of the program is to support the development of alternative activities in municipalities affected by the closure of coal mines, coal-fired thermal power plants and closed nuclear power plants. Still pending a final resolution, their aid will go to industrial or service projects, for all types of companies and entrepreneurs.

These are the first calls to certify projects with resources from the European Just Transition Fund. Endowed with 868 million euros, the management of 96% corresponds to the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Asturias, Aragon, Castilla y León and the Balearic Islands, while the ITJ is responsible for the remaining 4%.

The ITJ is the first entity to distribute this type of funds, to which are added other aid programs financed with national funds and with the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which are already at the service of the Just Transition areas.

In addition, the ITJ will publish before December 31 the calls for aid to finance business projects and small investment projects that generate employment that promote the alternative development of the mining areas of Asturias, Castilla y León, Aragón and Puertollano, with a provision of 28 million national funds.

Of this amount, a total of 24 million will be allocated to business projects and another four million to small investment projects.

The calls will take into account criteria of environmental sustainability, business and social innovation, as well as the promotion of employment of women, youth and people over 45 years of age, and of people who are part of the ITJ mining surplus employment pool.

Its requirements have been adapted to increase the average intensity of aid, support for industrial projects and make certain conditions more flexible to promote the survival of projects, according to the statement.

These new calls will be an opportunity for the projects of mining municipalities that have not been awarded the provisionally resolved lines; They will be able to resubmit their proposals quickly.

The aid that will be called before the end of the year is contemplated in the Framework Agreement for a Just Transition of Coal Mining and Sustainable Development of the Mining Regions for the period 2019-2027, signed in 2018 between the Government, the unions and the employers' association of coal companies.

Its purpose is to alleviate the social and economic consequences of the closure of coal mines in these regions, encouraging the creation of new companies and employment and supporting the expansion and diversification of the activities of existing companies. The nature of the aid allows projects to be prioritized based on the interest for the area in which they are going to be developed.

This framework of action promotes measures for the reactivation and economic development of coal mining regions, contributing to the fulfillment of the objectives of decarbonization of the economy and fair transition, the promotion of alternative activities to coal monoculture and the generation of employment in these territories.