The Government of Spain guarantees that school canteens offer five healthy meals a week

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pablo Bustinduy, Pilar Alegría, and Jordi Hereu at the press conference following the Council of Ministers (Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez)

The Council of Ministers has approved a royal decree on healthy and sustainable school canteens to guarantee the right of all children to healthy, quality food regardless of their family's income level.

The Minister for Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, stressed that the aim of the regulation is to ensure that schools serve five meals a week "that are nutritious, balanced, healthy and in line with the standards of the World Health Organization or the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition."

In this respect, Bustinduy stressed that the royal decree promotes the daily consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, pulses, fish and quality meat, while limiting ultra-processed foods, pre-cooked dishes and an excessive of fried foods. It also removes sugary drinks, energy drinks and industrial pastries from vending machines and school cafeterias.

The minister stressed that other objectives of the regulation are to "guarantee social equity and equal opportunities" and to ensure that children acquire healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives. In this regard, Pablo Bustinduy recalled that the data from the latest Aladino study shows that one in two children from families with an annual income of under 18,000 euros a year is overweight because they cannot afford to eat more fresh food every day or eat a full breakfast.

The school canteen is, according to the minister, a tool to reduce inequality: "The regulation seeks to ensure that schools are spaces that guarantee opportunities and guarantee the right to healthy food regardless of variables such as social class."

Bustinduy also stated that the regulation is committed to "a more sustainable, more efficient and more rational model that involves less packaging, less plastic and less waste."

The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, during his speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The royal decree also seeks to promote local consumption, seasonal products and local agricultural, fishing and livestock production. "We want to connect the countryside and the garden with school canteens, and we want our farmers, fishers and livestock breeders to provide quality products to feed the country's children in school canteens," said the minister.

The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda concluded his speech by expressing the Government's commitment to "a fairer model, which cares not only for children's rights, but also for the environment and the strategic sectors of our economy."

198 million to help families and child poverty

In relation to protecting rights, the Government has also agreed to transfer 198.7 million euros to the autonomous communities (except the Basque Country and Navarre) and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla for family and child poverty programmes, as well as to reinforce social services. This will finance, among other things, basic needs such as food, hygiene and clothing, as well as grants for school canteens and the purchase of school supplies.

Pablo Bustinduy stressed that the two initiatives approved today in his area of competence "demonstrate the political will to strengthen social cohesion and to deepen the welfare state."

Guarantees facility to cover tariffs

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, during her speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has announced that the Government has agreed to activate the first tranche of the Guarantees Facility, managed by the Official Credit Institute, to facilitate financing for companies affected by the new US tariff measures.

The Guarantees Facility has been allocated 5 billion euros, as announced by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, during his appearance at the Council of Ministers last week, and the first tranche of 1 billion euros is being activated today.

6,032 new posts for the Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil in 2025

The Executive has authorised the announcement of 2,914 open competition vacancies for the Policía Nacional and 3,118 for the Civil Guard, which are included in the public employment offer for 2025.

Pilar Alegría highlighted that since 2018, 14,391 new members have joined the State Law Enforcement Forces and Agencies, which has allowed 2024 to end with an all-time high of more than 156,463 agents.

Annual Regulatory Plan 2025

The spokesperson said that the Government has approved the Annual Regulatory Plan of the General State Administration 2025, which contains all the regulations it plans to approve during the year.

Alegría specified that the plan incorporates a total of 199 initiatives, which the Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños, will present to the Lower House of Parliament in a few weeks' time. She also described the document as "an exercise in transparency and accountability".

Electoral debates in public media will be compulsory

At today's meeting, the Executive addressed the reform of the Organic Law on the General Electoral System, whose draft bill foresees that the public media will be obliged to hold at least one debate during electoral campaigns. The future regulation will require that polls and surveys published during electoral campaigns also disclose their microdata files.

The spokesperson stated that this is in compliance with the Action Plan for Democracy approved by the Government in 2024 and provides more transparency to the democratic system.

Cross of Alfonso X the Wise for Vargas Llosa

Pilar Alegría began her speech at the press conference following the Council of Ministers by expressing the Government's condolences to the family and readers of the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who died yesterday.

The spokesperson announced that the Council of Ministers had posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise to the novelist, who already holds the Prince of Asturias Award and the Nobel Prize for Literature, among other distinctions, and is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.

Report on the tourism situation

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, presented the report on the tourism situation, which reflects the evolution of the sector in recent years and the progress made in transforming the model.

In his speech, Hereu pointed out that Spain is a leader in international tourism and also wants to be a benchmark in the transformation of the sector towards "triple social, environmental and economic sustainability".

The Government's tourism model, Hereu explained, aims to decentralise destinations; diversify experiences and products; deseasonalise visits, digitalise the sector, and redistribute the benefits throughout the territories. And this, he said, is taking place thanks to the policies promoted in recent years by the State in cooperation with the autonomous communities, town councils and local administrations.

The Government has invested 3.4 billion euros of European funds to move towards a "model of greater sustainability", the minister added, and this is being translated into many projects and actions throughout the country.

Jordi Hereu explained how from 2018 to 2024 the number of visitors and tourist spending has grown more in the mid and low season months than in the high season: "What we want to happen is happening and that is what we are investing in."

Furthermore, the minister indicated that tourism is becoming more decentralised and spending is growing more in inland and northern Spain than in the autonomous communities that are traditionally the centre of tourist activity: Madrid, the two archipelagos, Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia.

Easter Forecast

As for the forecasts for Easter, the Minister for Industry and Tourism has argued that international tourist spending will exceed 20 billion euros in March and April, which is 13% more than in 2024. During these months, 15 million visitors will arrive in Spain, 9% more than in the same period last year.

Tourism employment grew by almost 25,000 in March without Easter, a month ended with more than 2.7 million Social Security contributors in the sector, with an increase of 1% in the number of employees, who now represent 82% of the total number of employees. In this context, the minister highlighted that "in 2019, one out of every three contracts in tourism was temporary and by the end of 2024 only one out of every five contracts was temporary".

Non official translation