The governing body of the Nuclear Transition Funds (FTN) has agreed to execute the second distribution of the resources from the settlement of the 2023 tax. As detailed by the Secretary of Business and Competitiveness, Albert Castellanos, there will be 53 million euros that will be They add to the 30 million of the first advance.
Just over half will be distributed proportionally to the 97 municipalities in the nuclear zones. On the other hand, during April and May the first specific calls will be issued for the nuclear transition territories with the aim of facilitating reindustrialization, new activities, the arrival of foreign investment and support for the primary sector.
The Government, before the call for elections, reserves up to 35 million euros for aid in 2024.
The governing body of the Nuclear Transition Fund met this Wednesday in Gandesa in what will be the last meeting of the legislature.
The main agreements made are that the 53 million euros for 2023 will be distributed and the calls for the 2024 resources will be immediately opened, this year aimed above all at promoting the industry and job creation.
The councils will collect the second part of last year’s settlement, half of the 53 million euros will be for the 87 councils of the Penta II zone (Priorat, Baix Camp, Terra Alta, Ribera d’Ebre and Baix Ebre) closest in nuclear power plants.
It will be approximately 300,000 euros for each council. The same amount will be subtracted from the other half and will be paid to the ten municipalities in the Penta I nuclear zone. Applications can be submitted this April, but the payment will not be settled until September or October, according to the Business Secretary. and Competitiveness.
During the months of April and May, Castellanos has also announced that the first specific calls will be made to request aid from the 2024 Nuclear Fund. As was already advanced in the previous meeting of the governing body in Tortosa, calls from the Department will be taken advantage of. of Company that will include specific modalities associated with the resources of the Funds. As no budgets have been approved for this year, the Government extends the amount of 23.7 million euros provided for in last year’s accounts, and “the Generalitat’s own resources have been allocated” to extend the amount to 35 million. of euros.
At this Wednesday’s meeting in Gandesa there was no agreement on the technical secretariat that must evaluate and grant the resources of the Nuclear Fund. The town councils and socio-economic entities of Camp de Tarragona do not welcome the fact that this figure falls to the IDECE (Institut per al Desenvolupament de les Comarques de l’Ebre). They even held a parallel meeting, chaired by the City Council of Vandellòs and L’Hospitalet de l’Infant, where it was proposed that the Reus Chamber of Commerce be the one to coordinate it.
The decision will surely be made at the next meeting on July 2, and it will be the Business Department who must decide. One of the proposals that has been put on the table in Gandesa is that the technical secretariat falls to the five regional councils with the coordination of ACCIÓ, the Business Competitiveness Agency.
Castellanos has defended that we can opt for “a coordinated network” that guarantees “the necessary capillarity” so that all municipalities and companies feel well served and represented.
Albert Salvadó, Government delegate in Terres de l’Ebre, has defended that it is necessary to find a formula to “not generate difficulties”, but that it be a single technical secretariat. “In the end what we want is for the Nuclear Transition Funds to reach the private sector to generate a socioeconomic model that is useful so that with the closure of the nuclear plants the affected area does not become an economic desert,” he claimed. “We must stop fooling around,” he concluded.
