The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the Institute for the Just Transition, has published the proposals for provisional resolution of the aid for business projects and for small investment projects in municipalities included in the Just Transition agreements, available here.
In addition, a new call for small investment projects will be launched before 1 January. All projects that have been left out of aid on this occasion, will have a new opportunity to access aid.
Asturias provisionally earns 11.2 million euros for 57 projects. It is 22.4 percent of the 50 million euros that the ITJ grants to 167 initiatives across the country. They are business projects located in Cangas del Narcea, Carreño, Corvera, Degaña, Gijón, Langreo, Llanera, Mieres, Morcín, Salas, San Martín del Rey Aurelio, Tineo and Villaviciosa. The forecast is that they will create 335 jobs in Asturias and 1,193 across the country.
The lines are intended to support the development of alternative activities in municipalities affected by the closure of coal mines, coal-fired power plants and closed nuclear power plants. Still pending final resolution, its support will be highlighted in industrial or service projects, of all types of companies and entrepreneurs.
There are two types of aids. On the one hand, those aimed at business projects, convened for a total budget of 40 million and which will support 40 projects linked to a mobilisation of 209 million investment and a commitment to create more than 900 jobs. In the case of Asturias, there are nine initiatives in six councils that would receive seven million euros for a planned investment of 49.1 million euros and that will create 212 jobs.
For its part, the aid to 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. Asturias would receive 40 percent of the total, 4.2 million euros, for initiatives that foresee investments of 12.6 million euros and that will create 123 jobs.
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 corresponds to the remaining 4%.
The ITJ is the first entity to distribute this type of funds, to which are added other lines of aid financed with national funds and with the Transformation and Resilience Recovery Plan, which are already at the service of the Just Transition areas.
NEW AID FOR MINING AREAS
The ITJ will publish before December 31 the calls for grants to finance entrepreneurial 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 an endowment of 28 million national funds. Of this amount, a total of 24 million will go 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 for women, young people and people over 45 years of age, and people who are part of the ITJ mining surplus employment exchange. They have adapted their requirements to increase the average aid intensity, support for industrial projects and make certain conditions more flexible to promote the survival of projects.
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 submit their proposals again quickly.
WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT FOR A FAIR TRANSITION
The aid that will be called before the end of the year is contemplated in the Framework Agreement for a Fair 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 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 prioritised according to the interests of the area in which they are to be developed.
This framework of action promotes measures to reactivate and promote the economy of the coal mining regions, contributing to the fulfillment of the objectives of decarbonization of the economy and fair transition, the promotion of alternative activities to the monoculture of coal and the generation of employment in these territories.