Valencia, 2 January 2025. The delegate of the Government in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, and the Government commissioner for reconstruction after the damage, José María Ángel, held a meeting with the president of the CEV, Salvador Navarro, among other representatives of the employers, to analyze the aid to the affected companies. For the government, said Bernabé, “the economic, social and emotional reconstruction of the province of Valencia is a priority.” For this reason, he recalled, the Government of Spain has so far mobilized, in three royal decrees, more than 16.5 billion euros for the citizens affected and also for large and small companies.
In the meeting held, it has been agreed to consolidate three working groups to channel “in a coordinated way with the employers” the aid implemented by the Government for companies, SMEs, commerce and the self-employed. In this sense, Bernabé pointed out, the first group will address the problems of industrial estates and companies; the second, would be destined “to the urban economy, of businesses, SMEs and self-employed people”; and the third, is more related to the issues that have to do with employment. At the moment, the Government of Spain is protecting, through payments from the HACRAs, 24,333 people, which could reach up to 31,000 people due to the number of applications from Valencian companies that have requested to avail themselves of this mechanism.
Interest-free subsidies for companies and SMEs: 1.800M€ of financing
Bernabé stressed that the Government of Spain has mobilized 1.8 billion euros in financing for companies, aid “that has no interest, and that will help them have, on the one hand, both autonomous and SMEs and large industries, circulating to be able to start, to be able to work and also to be able to invest”.
In relation to payments, as Bernabé has advanced, “direct aid has already been paid to SMEs and self-employed over 76% of the people who have requested the application”. In addition, the Government of Spain, through the Insurance Consortium, “is already paying about 30% of the claims that have been requested for compensation as a result of the damage”. Therefore, a total of 741 million euros has already been paid through the Consortium. “In the last seven days, in just one week, the pace of payment has doubled,” he said.