Provincial representatives to agree acceleration of COVID-19 aid payments

Thursday 11th February 2021 | MIKE SMITH

Carlos Mazón, president of the Alicante Provincial Council has released details of the joint alliance that the provincial government team and opposition groups will use to accelerate the payment of financial aid to sectors in the province affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This effort can be moved forward after agreement was reached with Cuidadanos representative Javier Gutiérrez, to speed up procedures.

Mazón has kept contact over the past few days with the representatives from PSPV-PSOE, Toni Francés, and Compromís, Gerard Fullana, to structure a direct and effective action plan that will allow both the hospitality sector as well as the self-employed and professionals to receive immediate financial aid.

The president has also summoned the political leaders to an extraordinary Board of Representatives meeting that will be held today Thursday to address this important matter as well as introduce some new features such as the inclusion of unforeseen expenses incurred up to now. The financial aid packages on offer are 14.7 million euros to support the hospitality sector and an addition 9 million euros for self-employed and professionals.

According to Mazón, “from an economic point of view, the self-employed, the hospitality sector and commerce are our absolute priority“, which, he explained, is why that, by consensus, “we have convened one of the Extraordinary Board of Representatives to speed up the deadlines for the Provincial Council to the maximum, not only to make the 14 million euros of the PLAN RESISTIR available, but also the additional 9 million for all the self-employed in the Provincia de Alicante, through the town halls”. He insisted that “the situation and its economic consequences are fundamental and we are working hard at the moment”.

The president highlighted the willingness of both Francés and Fullana to put together this aid measure, which will soon be discussed in an extraordinary plenary session in which the two aid packages will be approved. In addition, he specified that the relevant administration procedures are being streamlined to wrap up the 2020 budget and dispose of the surplus.

The Cuidadanos representative Javier Gutiérrez insisted on the need to respond “to the demands of the sector that are suffering greatly from the consequences of this pandemic with flexibility and without delay” and, in this sense, he stressed that the Provincial Council “is putting all its resources to contributing to alleviate this situation for those groups which are suffering the most”.

The Provincial Council has some 14.7 million euros of financial aid on offer as part of a support package coordinated between the Generalitat Valenciana, the three provincial councils, and the individual municipalities, an investment that represents 22.5% of the subsidy that will go to the participating municipalities. This funding will be used to support the hospitality sector as well as the leisure and cultural sectors and travel agencies.

In addition, the Provincial Council itself will invest an additional 9 million euros in a package that will be distributed amongst the 141 municipalities in the province – according the population critera – which will be used to support SMEs, micro-SMEs, the self-employed and professionals in the region. This contribution has increased by 50%, from 6 million to 9 million, after the worsening of the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Information Source
Press Release – Diputación de Alicante