Nicanor Sen conveys to the Secretary of State for the Demographic Challenge the need to continue betting on the rural environment of Castilla y León

• The government delegate highlights the sensitivity of the National Executive to the territory, which has received the greatest investment in the fight against depopulation • In the last three years the Community has received about 26 million for projects approved at the Sectoral Conference of Demographic Challenge and has been committed to funding 154 projects of innovation and territorial transformation

March 13, 2024.- The Government delegate in Castilla y León, Nicanor Sen, held a working meeting with the Secretary General for the Demographic Challenge, Paco Boya, with which he addressed the development of the different projects of transformation and territorial cohesion, sustainable forest management and digital training that are being developed in the Community.

In addition, they have set out to continue working in a coordinated way to address depopulation in this territory, which, due to its extension and characteristics, requires “a special effort in the fight against depopulation”, as stressed by the government delegate, who thanked the sensitivity of the national executive with Castilla y León.

“This is the first time that the Government’s action has had a transversal programme of action in the field of demographic challenge and the fight against depopulation, as a result of the coordinated action of all the ministerial departments, of the collaboration with the other administrations, especially the local entities, and under the direction of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and, more specifically, of this Secretary of State,” said Sen, who hoped that “the many actions that are being carried out will soon begin to show solid, sustainable and future results” in the small municipalities and all rural areas of the Community.

As you have highlighted, Castilla y León is the autonomous community that has received the most funds in the distributions made unanimously at the Sectoral Conference of Demographic Challenge, 25.9 million euros between 2021 and 2023 with funding from the General State Budgets and from the funds of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience.

In the framework of this meeting, the Secretary of State presented to the Government delegate the analysis of the investments made in depopulation in Castilla y León within the centralized management programs of the Government. In this regard, too, the Community is the territory that has received the highest amount of funding, with 10.9 million. Support has also been given to 154 projects in the last two calls (2022 and 2023) of the grant programme for innovative territorial transformation projects, in its three forms.

Another of the topics dealt with was the development of the Network of Innovation Centres in Castilla y León, specifically in the provinces of León and Soria and in collaboration with provincial councils, centres oriented to Business Networking, Cooperation and Teleworking (CONECT) in rural environments at risk of depopulation, thus contributing to social cohesion and the economic development of the territory.