Government approves payment of part of 2012 Christmas bonus to public servants

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

According to the Vice-President of the Government, the government will thus meet the commitment it took on to return one-quarter of the 2012 Christmas bonus before the end of the year. Furthermore, she recalled that 25% of this has already been returned and that the Draft General State Budget for 2016 provides for the return of the remaining 50%, thus completing the entire payment of the bonus that was deferred.

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría explained that measures such as the present one can be undertaken and credit made available thanks to the positive progress of the State deficit, which to the month of July stood at 16%, mainly as a result of increased revenues.

The return of this 26.23% will be made effective in the first payslip following the approval of the Royal Decree officially granting this credit, which will foreseeably take place the following week, and will be paid out in a separate wage.

Pool MoncloaFurthermore, as a result of this extraordinary credit, the regulation prior to 2012 will be reinstated on authorisations for personal issues due to seniority, pointed out Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, which will allow those with more than 15 years of service to enjoy four additional days of annual leave for every five years of service, two additional free days as from 18 years, and one additional day as from 24 years of service and so on. This is a basic and non-extendable regulation, she specified, although it is optional on the part of the individual public authority.

Also in relation to authorisations for personal issues, when the aforesaid Royal Decree is approved, the days lost under this heading will be recuperated to stand at six days as was previously established.

Immigration and asylum

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced that in order to design a system to take in refugees that leads to genuine integration, and moreover, to do so in an orderly manner, the President of the Government has decided to set up an Inter-ministerial Committee headed up by the Vice-President of the Government and made up of the ministerial departments involved. The first decision that has been taken is to request that the Sectoral Conference on Migration be convened, which will foreseeably take place the following week.

The government has been arguing for some time now that migratory movements constitute "potentially one of the major challenges facing the European Union and the world in general", which is why it will work "as seriously, responsibly and supportively as possible", because this has always been its position on the matter of immigration and asylum.

These are problems, underlined the Vice-President of the Government, which we need to respond to with "unity", "sensitivity" and with a "vocation for cooperation", which is why the government has advocated in the European Union that "we must be capable of implementing a single and common policy", both in terms of labour immigration and in the treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees.

Pool MoncloaIn the same way as we, as Europeans, must work together and supportively, she argued that all the Spanish public authorities must work in a coordinated fashion, because this is a problem that "we are going to have to learn how to deal with in the short, medium and long term", and we must apply common guidelines for all our public authorities, because this is a "State policy, that is comprehensive for the whole of the European Union".

As regards the figures of asylum-seekers that could correspond to Spain, the Government Spokesperson remarked that we must shy away from "glib statements in response to difficult problems" and that the next European Council will analyse the capacity of each Member State. According to the Vice-President of the Government, it is not only a question of taking in refugees, but also of integrating them, since this process is not only limited to this tough and critical moment; we must "offer them an integrated future in our society".

Other decisions adopted by Council of Ministers

• New measures to facilitate the renewal of the purse-seine tuna fleet in international fishing grounds.
• Withdrawal of appeal on grounds of unconstitutionality against the Trade Act of the Balearic Islands.
• Regulation of the structure and operation of the Centre for Innovation and Development of Distance Learning (Spanish acronym: CIDEAD).
• Approval of concession of a loan, for a maximum sum of 20 million dollars, to the Republic of Ecuador, charged to the Fund for the romotion of Development.

Current affairs

Pool MoncloaThe Vice-President of the Government reiterated that Catalonia "cannot and will not become independent". The President of the Regional Government, Artur Mas, is conveying information on a process to the citizens that "he is aware is on a road to nowhere", and which, moreover, is increasingly "a weaker process", she stressed.

This situation is "generating unease and discomfort among the people of Catalonia", which means that "a great many citizens are living through something that will not come to pass, with great uncertainty and with great unease". Artur Mas must stop deceiving the people of Catalonia with this process of independence and with a willingness to negotiate", when in fact what is happening is that it is difficult to negotiate when you don't stand by your words or respect the law.