More than 7,300 residents of 826 rural municipalities already know the advantages and possibilities of e-government thanks to the program ‘The Administration near you’

• Since this program was launched at the end of 2022 and in the framework of these informative and training sessions, more than 5,000 digital certificates have been issued to facilitate the inhabitants of these municipalities access to the different procedures of e-government. • The government delegate in Castilla y León, Nicanor Sen, together with the subdelegate in Valladolid, visited this week the days given in the Vallisoletans of Quintanilla de Onésimo and Velliza, where he stressed the importance of this action that contributes to advance in rights and protect the public.

March 16, 2024.- Obtain a work life report, apply for a maternity or paternity benefit, process a retirement pension or calculate the time left until you can retire, seal unemployment, consult cadastral data... all these, and many more, are procedures that any citizen can do from home and without having to wait. You just need, an electronic device, internet and the digital certificate. But how do I get that certificate and where do I perform those procedures?

These questions are answered by the program ‘The Administration near you’ that the General Administration of the State (AGE) launched at the end of 2022 and that, since then, has reached more than 7,300 people from 826 municipalities of less than 8,000 inhabitants of Castilla y León who have requested it.

This pioneering program, jointly promoted by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, aims to bring to the last corner of each territory the services that the Government of Spain provides through the different agencies that the AGE has settled, mainly, in the large population centers. The services of the Delegations and Subdelegations of the Government, the Social Security, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), the Land Registry, the State Tax Administration Agency... Who has not ever needed to carry out any procedures in any of these agencies?

In a city, that displacement is relatively simple for the vast majority of the neighbors, but for the residents in the rural environment the effort, discomfort and difficulties are much greater, sometimes even insurmountable. Therefore, informing, training and assisting these people is the task of the people who work for ‘The Administration near you’, State officials who put at the service of the citizens the opportunities offered today by the digital transformation in which the public sector is immersed, aimed at developing more inclusive, efficient, personalized, proactive and quality digital public services.

They do it through sessions that they carry out in the municipalities that request it, inviting all the neighbors to participate and, if they so wish, to carry their electronic device to put into practice what is shown there and even help them to obtain the digital certificate, which is the ‘key’ that opens the doors of all these procedures. In fact, since this program was launched at the end of 2022, the staff of the Government Delegation in Castilla y León and the different subdelegations of the Community have helped more than 5,000 people to obtain this digital certificate in these sessions.

ONE-CLICK ADMINISTRATION SERVICES

The usefulness of these talks and the interest they arouse in the municipalities have been proven this week by the Government delegate in Castilla y León, Nicanor Sen, and the Government subdelegate in Valladolid, Jacinto Canales, who have visited those that have been carried out in the towns of Quintanilla de Onésimo, a town of just over a thousand inhabitants located 35 kilometers from the capital of Valladolid, and Velliza, with just 125 neighbors and 24 kilometers from most public services offices that are located in Valladolid.

Maite and José in Quintanilla and Ester and Rosa in Velliza, the four officials of the Government Delegation in Castilla y León, have been the people responsible for directing these sessions, but there are many more names behind this program that aims to spread and publicize the new tools that the AGE puts at the service of residents in the rural world so that, subsequently, they can benefit from its advantages, such as the possibility of carrying out any procedure without moving from home, with just a ‘click’.

In his visit to these two sessions of ‘The Administration Near You’, the government delegate stressed the importance of this type of programs that promote social and territorial cohesion; combat the digital divide, especially among the older population; reinforce equal opportunities, and promote a more useful and closer Administration.

“I was born, I grew up and I live in a municipality that barely exceeds 3,000 inhabitants and that I have had the fortune to manage as mayor for 20 years. I know the reality of the rural world, I live it every day, and programs like this are vital to channel the new services offered by the administrations in a telematic way,” said Sen in the brief words he addressed to the attendees of these two sessions.

Of the 2,248 municipalities in Castilla y León, only 29 have a census of more than 8,000 inhabitants. The figures support the importance of this program in the Community where, of all the municipalities eligible for it, 37% have already done so and, in addition, with a high participation of their neighbors. For a little more than an hour, the attendees of the days carry out with the technicians a tour of the charter of public services that they have at their disposal in the electronic administration, as well as ‘My citizens’ folder’, the online personal space that gives the citizen access to obtaining data such as working life, cadastral certificates or vote by mail, among others. In addition, all of them are given an informative dose, as well as the provision of the technicians to any doubts that may arise.

Municipalities interested in taking these sessions to their municipalities can inform themselves and request them through their corresponding subdelegation or the Government Delegation. The only thing that will be requested is the transfer of a space where you can carry it out that, if possible, has access to the internet.

The Government of Spain is decisively promoting the development of a factory of online tools and mobile applications that allow to bring services to citizens to any corner of the territory. A range of possibilities that provides an unprecedented basis for personalizing the relationship with the administrations, being key to help combat the challenge of depopulation, one of the great endemic evils of Castilla y León.

DATA BY PROVINCES

	MUNICIPALITIES VISITED	MUNICIPALITIES ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PROGRAM	ASSISTANTS	CERTIFICATES ISSUED	KM TRAVELLED
AVILA	85	247	589	448	9.902
BURGOS	55	368	2.049	1.695	8.125
LION	111	204	672	104	9.435,3
PALENCIA	48	190	492	503	4.568
SALAMANCA	128	358	871	605	13.622
SEGOVIA	77	206	375	92	3.409.7
SORIA	50	182	325	131	3,754
VALLADOLID	113	218	813	600	9.412
ZAMORA	159	245	1.177	283/607	10.655,6
CYL	826	2,218	7.363	5.068	72,883.6