The Government, through the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, has presented on Wednesday the SER 2024 Scholarships for the preparation of oppositions to the Judicial and Fiscal Careers, to the Lawyers Corps of the Administration of Justice and to the State Lawyers Corps.
The SER Scholarships, promoted for the first time in democracy in the year 2022, accumulate a total of 997 beneficiaries throughout Spain in the two previous calls. In the case of Cantabria, the beneficiaries amount to 12 in the cumulative of 2022 and 2023.
These scholarships, whose third call will be published this Friday, May 31, have the objective of promoting equal opportunities in access to the highest bodies of the Administration of Justice, since students with vocation will be able to choose to prepare these competitions without family income conditioning their decision. As the minister has said, the SER Scholarships also contribute to making effective the rights and principles enshrined in the Spanish Constitution, democratizing access to public employment under the principles of equality, merit and ability.
In this regard, Bolaños has pointed out that, after the positive impact of the previous calls for proposals, the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts has strengthened this scholarship program from a double perspective: on the one hand, increasing its budget, and, on the other, launching an information and dissemination campaign that provides them with an identity - scholarships - and a graphic image that makes them recognizable and facilitates their institutionalization as a permanent public policy.
During his speech, the minister explained that the budget of the SERA 2024 Scholarships will increase by 52.7% compared to last year, to reach 8 million euros, and almost 400% more than the first year. This will also increase the number of scholarships awarded (26% more than in 2023, to reach 1,000) and improve their allocation, raising the amount of each of them by 21%, to 8,000 euros. A significant increase compared to the first call (2022), which had a budget allocation of 1.6 million euros, and the second (2023), of 5.2 million euros.
The event, which was presented by Félix Martin, prosecutor of the Jury Service of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona and director of Training of the Fiscal Career at the CEJ between 2021 and 2023, was held in the space By Digital Talent of the ONCE Foundation. There was a colloquium on the importance of these scholarships, which was also attended by Manuel Olmedo, Secretary of State for Justice; Yurena Rodríguez, prosecutor and holder of a SER Scholarship in 2022; Javier Gustavo Fernández, president of the Conference of Deans and Deans of Law; and Sonia Nuez, technical judge advising the Ombudsman and preparing oppositions to the judicial career.