The Government of Spain sends the recommendations of the Citizens' Climate Assembly to Lower House of Parliament

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Council of Ministers is committed to evaluating the recommendations of the Citizens' Climate Assembly, a pioneering deliberative exercise in Spain, and has forwarded them to the Lower House of Parliament.

The report, the result of work carried out between November 2021 and May 2022 by 100 randomly selected citizens, contains 172 recommendations organised into five main blocks: consumption; food and land use; work; community, health and care; and ecosystems.

The Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, stressed the innovative nature of this plan, as it represents a change in the way in which environmental issues have traditionally been dealt with and provides a different vision of how to accelerate the fight against the climate crisis.

The Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, during her speech. | Pool Moncloa/Javier Amescua

The one hundred citizens who participated, who met and debated over more than seven months, have represented, in Ribera's words, a "mini Spain", and now their recommendations will be evaluated and studied by the public authorities "opening a new path to strengthen public participation beyond the official, institutional or electoral forums".

Regulatory test bed in the electricity sector

The Government has established the general framework of the regulatory test-bed for the promotion of research and innovation in the electricity sector. It will allow the creation of limited and secure experimental spaces in which to test pilot projects that require some form of regulatory exemption in the scope of the electricity sector for their implementation.

Teresa Ribera stated that it is important to have these controlled spaces where pioneering projects can be tested "on a reasonable scale, in a suitable geography and for a certain period of time" in order to make progress in technological deployment and also in better regulation, which integrates generation sources or storage capacity other than those traditionally used.

Access to the test bed will be called in the coming weeks with the aim of being fully operational by the end of this year.

Spanish Copyright and Related Rights Office (Oficina Española de Derechos de Autor y Conexos)

The Minister for Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, during his speech. | Pool Moncloa/Javier Amescua

The Executive has initiated the processing of the Draft Bill to create the Spanish Copyright and Related Rights Office, an autonomous body that will be dedicated to strengthening the State's administrative activity in the field of intellectual property.

"This is a commitment of the progressive coalition government agreement, of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and, above all, an obligation to the Spanish cultural industry", said the Minister for Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta.

Iceta stressed that intellectual property is a fundamental pillar of the cultural and creative industries - which contribute 3.4% of GDP, according to the Culture Satellite Account - and a strategic vector for social and economic development and for projecting a positive image of Spain in the world.

Intellectual property rights have evolved with technology and the digital market and this new body will allow the State to improve and extend its powers, to have a wider scope of supervision and control of management entities and new independent management operators, to have the powers of the national authority functions in the field of works without a known author and other functions such as the direct blocking procedure of pirate websites.

17 March, Comic and Comic Strip Day

The Council of Ministers has agreed the Declaration of 17 March as Comic and Comic Strip Day. This date has been chosen because it is considered to be the date of the beginning of the publication of the comic strip magazine TBO, "which popularised the publishing model in an expansive way in Spain and gave its name to the phenomenon itself", explained Miquel Iceta.

The minister highlighted the thriving and growing nature of this cultural sector that, according to data compiled by the Spanish comics sector, published more than 4,130 comics in Spain in 2021, of which 1,082 were by Spanish authors. There are more than 1,000 authors, including scriptwriters, cartoonists, colourists and translators, around 40 publishing houses and more than 250 specialised bookshops, and more than a million people participate in comic and manga festivals every year. "And let's not forget that comics and comic strips are often the gateway to new readers," he added.

The approved declaration aims to recognise the value of the sector, highlight the role of its professionals in social and cultural life and show the Government's support. This year, the Ministry of Culture and Sport has awarded, for the first time, its Award for the Best Cultural Publishing Work to a specialised publishing house, Norma Editorial. Comics are also included among the products that can be purchased this year by the beneficiaries of the Youth Cultural Voucher.

State investments

The Minister for Territorial Policy and Government Spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, during her speech. | Pool Moncloa/Javier Amescua

The Executive has earmarked almost 4 million euros to improve the material resources of the National Police and the Civil Guard and has authorised the contract to manufacture eight interceptor patrol boats designed to prevent drug trafficking and smuggling.

The Minister for Territorial Policy and Government Spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, has specified that the improvement in the material resources with which the State Law Enforcement Forces and Agencies work is in addition to the effort being made to improve salaries and reinforce personnel through the Public Employment Offer.

On the other hand, the purchase of speed cameras on different stretches of roads to detect speeding and thus contribute to the reduction of accidents has been authorised, for an amount of 14 million euros. Rodríguez insisted that, in addition to improving the means available, it is necessary for drivers to be prudent, especially during the summer when there is an increase in journeys made.

Finally, the Government has authorised a subsidy of 30 million euros to the Autonomous Community of Aragon, included in the General State Budget Law for 2022, to finance investments in the province of Teruel. "It is a reinforcement of a territory that needs our collaboration and that makes Aragon and Teruel move forwards in convergence with the rest of the territories in our country," said Rodríguez.

Death of the former Minister for Culture and Sport, José Guirao

Spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez has expressed the condolences of the Executive on the death of José Guirao Cabrera, who was Minister of Culture and Sport between June 2018 and December 2020. "As the president of the Government said, Guirao put his love for culture at the service of our country with great virtue, and we will always be grateful to him," he said.

The current Minister for Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta, said that today is "a very sad day for the world of culture and for all of us who loved him". Iceta praised Guirao's work in the Ministry, with initiatives such as the creation of the Interministerial Committee for the Development of the Artist Statute, and also his dedication as Commissioner for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso, which will begin next September.

For her part, the third vice-president, Teresa Ribera, highlighted another more unknown facet of José Guirao; his passion for environmental protection. "He was undoubtedly one of the great allies and pioneers in the protection of the environment in our country", she acknowledged, after recalling his membership of environmental groups in the late 1970s in Almería and his monitoring of projects to protect the archaeological site of Ancas from the risks of flooding and to protect the coastline between Pulpí, his home town, and Águilas.

Caution and prudence in the face of the heat wave

The third vice-president reviewed some recommendations for the coming heat wave, the second in less than a month.

Firstly, from the health point of view, she called for caution, especially for the most vulnerable people, and for the measures contained in the National Plan of preventive actions against the effects of excessive temperatures on health. Teresa Ribera has explained that there is also a free Temperature and Risk Level Subscription Service, through which people can receive daily information on temperatures and risk levels.

To prevent forest fires such as those that occurred in June during the first wave, the vice-president stressed the need to heed the warnings of Civil Protection and, in relation to energy consumption, she called for prudence, because in this type of episode there is a significant increase in electricity demand that coincides with a significant decrease in wind and photovoltaic generation.

Non official translation