The Ministry of Industry and Tourism plans to launch this year two new Perte VEC calls to promote the automotive sector, which will total more than 1.5 billion euros and will consist mostly of loans, Minister Jordi Hereu announced this Monday. in his appearance in Congress to report on the main lines of action of his department.
The idea, he explained, is to publish this quarter a third extraordinary call from the Perte VEC with more than 200 million in subsidies and 100 million in loans, which will be dedicated to battery projects and the electric car value chain. Later, in the second half of the year, the fourth call will be published, with a budget of 1,000 million euros in loans and 250 million in subsidies.
The minister also announced that “next week, starting on February 7”, the first fifteen provisional resolutions of the aid pending allocation from the second call of the Perte will be published, with 344 million in subsidies and 215 million in loans.
Stellantis is one of the companies that are pending this procedure, which was initially scheduled for December and which, in its case, will allow it to launch a new platform to assemble small and medium electric cars in Vigo, known as STLA Small.
Stellantis’s discomfort over the delays in aid is highlighted by the upcoming Galician elections, as is the case of the Alcoa plant in San Cibrao. “We are working with the Xunta to guarantee the viability of the plant, demanding the restart and making the Perte decarbonization aid available to them,” the minister assured.
Hereu recalled that the Ministry of Industry manages a record budget of 8,529 million euros to develop its policies, as part of the 160,000 million euros that will be mobilized in Spain between 2021 and 2026 as part of the recovery plan.
He also announced his intention to reinvigorate the industry law to create, among other things, “a new mechanism for managing reindustrialization processes in which a negotiation process begins in the event of the closure of any industrial capacity.”
The measure will be “similar” to the one known as the ‘Florange law’, approved in France in 2014, which penalizes the closures of factories with more than 1,000 workers and encourages the search for a buyer.
The new law will also include the creation of “a strategic reserve to guarantee the supply of medical supplies, food or minerals” to avoid cases of shortages in specific episodes of shortages.
Hereu also announced two measures for industries with high energy consumption. The first is the extension of the 80% discount on the payment of electricity tolls by electro-intensive companies and the second, an increase of 25%, up to 300 million euros, in aid to industries to compensate for the cost. of CO2.
The Ministry of Industry also wants to create a Private Business Delinquency Observatory, which will appear included in a royal decree and will ensure that payment periods to suppliers are complied with.
