The Government of Spain earmarks 500 million euros for comprehensive care for people with ALS

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, the Minister for Industry and Tourism, the Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (Pool Moncloa / Fernando Calvo)

The Council of Ministers has agreed on an extraordinary injection of 500 million euros to reinforce the dependency system and to comply with the mandate of the law aimed at improving the quality of life of people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other highly complex and irreversible diseases. Through a royal decree law that must be ratified by the Lower House of Parliament, the Executive creates a new level of extreme dependency and the right to a benefit of almost 10,000 euros per month to guarantee effective care 24 hours a day.

Personalised and continuous care for people with ALS

The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, explained that the regulation is structured around three main pillars. The first is structural and entails the creation of rights and guarantees with this new level of extreme dependency, Level III+, which covers the care of people who require continuous and specialised care.

The second relates to the specific model used to address these needs. The care system must be personalised and permanent, which is guaranteed by the new benefit of 9,860 euros per month per patient. This was the main historical demand of groups of patients with ALS and other diseases that present similar symptoms, as well as the central mandate of the ALS Law.

The third pillar is financial: the Executive is mobilising 500 million euros in additional investment not only to comprehensively develop the ALS Law, but also to strengthen the overall dependency system. "It is clear to everyone that, due to demographic developments and changes in family structures, these needs and tensions within the system are only going to increase," noted the Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda.

Pablo Bustinduy emphasised that the decree law reflects a year of work by several ministries, the autonomous communities, and civil society to fulfil the implementation plan for the ALS Law, approved a year ago. This development has included improving the design of benefits for these particularly complex cases, social and healthcare coordination, and contributions for caregivers of people with Level III dependency; putting out to tender the first two specific care centres for ALS patients worldwide; and mobilising resources to temporarily address the needs of patients in advanced stages of these irreversible diseases.

The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Fernando Calvo

Reform of the dependency model and increase in funding

The minister also emphasised the government's "sustained commitment" to improving the funding of the dependency system, accompanied by the reform of the dependency and disability laws which is currently being processed in Parliament.

With the injection of 500 million euros approved today, the total estimated investment for the year 2025 by the General State Administration is 3.279 billion euros, 15.5% more than budgeted in 2023. Added to this are the transfers to the Autonomous Communities of more than 800 million, from the Recovery Plan funds.

Bustinduy announced that a Territorial Council meeting will be held next Thursday to "immediately" coordinate with the autonomous communities the adaptation of their dependency systems to the progress achieved in the decree law and to distribute the funds to which they are entitled. The minister will also meet imminently with associations of patients and their families, "who have made an exemplary contribution to the implementation of the law, as they did with its approval".

Furthermore, Pablo Bustinduy recalled the degree of consensus achieved by the ALS Law, an example of how, "above confrontation and the anti-political instrumentalisation of conflict, the general interest is gaining ground, in the form of extensions to the welfare state and improvements to our social protection system".

Aid for farmers and livestock farmers affected by fires

The Council of Ministers has approved direct aid to compensate for the damage caused to agriculture by last summer's major forest fires. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, said that some 350,000 hectares were affected; around 300,000 hectares corresponded to scrubland and pasture and 35,000 hectares were arable land.

The first type of aid ranges between 1,500 and 10,000 euros and is aimed at those who have suffered damage to their farms as a result of the fires; the amounts are between 6,000 and 16,000 euros for those farmers and stockbreeders who have agricultural insurance. "We have sought to provide extraordinary support in an extraordinary situation, but without undermining an absolutely effective and necessary risk management mechanism such as combined agricultural insurance in Spain, a benchmark model in the European Union and the world," Planas explained.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, Luis Planas, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Fernando Calvo

To complement this aid, the Ministry has established a rebate on the agricultural insurance premium of up to 70%, compared to the current 40%.

In total, the measures will amount to some 27 million euros and will benefit around 4,000 farmers and stockbreeders, including some1,500 extensive stockbreeding professionals. Luis Planas has pledged that the funds will be paid directly before 31 December this year, through a mechanism similar to the one used to mitigate the damage caused by the DANA disaster. The minister pointed out that, since 2020, the government has transferred 4.975 billion euros to the primary sector, outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and agricultural insurance, to respond to extraordinary situations, through direct aid, subsidies and tax exemptions.

Safer and more sustainable fisheries management

Also within the scope of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Executive has submitted to Parliament the draft Law on the Control, Inspection and Sanctioning Regime for Maritime Fisheries. The text adapts these matters to the current technical means and legal regime.

Luis Planas emphasised that the Spanish fleet is the largest in the European Union when taking into account power, tonnage and number of vessels, and is also present in all the seas and oceans of the world. "I am particularly proud that Spanish fishermen and shipowners defend and practise the highest standard, in terms of sustainability and safety, of all fishing activities carried out in the world," he said. The minister added that Spain is a pioneer in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The new regulation also incorporates European regulations on control and sanctions, which means, in the opinion of Luis Planas, "fishing carried out under the best conditions, not only in terms of extraction, but also in terms of sustainability".

Towards a tourism that generates wealth and wellbeing

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

The Government has approved the Spain Tourism 2030 Strategy, conceived as a roadmap built on dialogue and cooperation to guide the work of all stakeholders in the sector towards a balanced, inclusive and sustainable tourism model.

The Strategy is based on two main principles, according to the Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu. The first is to place at the heart of the tourism ecosystem not only the people who travel, but also those who manage destinations, create jobs and business projects and work in the sector, as well as the residents of towns and cities. The second principle is triple sustainability: economic, social and environmental. "The main objective for 2030," Hereu stated, "is to consolidate tourism as a driver of responsible, competitive economic development that generates well-being for citizens and regions."

The minister stressed that the data reflect "the enormous strength and attractiveness of Spain", which in 2024 welcomed 94 million international tourists and received 126 billion euros in tourist spending, figures that continue to rise this year. "But success alone is not enough, it requires us to look ahead, to ask ourselves what kind of tourism we want for the coming decades and how to ensure that this growth is balanced and sustainable," he argued.

To this end, the Ministry has been working with the autonomous communities, island councils, regional councils, and municipalities on a model that better distributes wealth, decentralises, deseasonalises, and diversifies initiatives, protects the environment and the people who make it possible, attracts higher-value tourism, and fosters innovation.

To further cement the government's contribution to the common model outlined in the Strategy, the Council of Ministers also approved the Spain Tourism 2030 Plan, which includes five programmes, 50 measures, and 148 actions. "We are already leaders in traditional metrics, but we also want to remain so in the values behind implementing triple sustainability in our territorial and social reality," said Jordi Hereu.

Transposition of directive to harmonise criminal legislation

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, reported that the Council of Ministers has submitted to Parliament the transposition of a European Union directive to give effect to EU decisions on sanctions and the defence of its sovereignty.

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa / Fernando Calvo

The government spokesperson explained that this regulation aims to harmonise European criminal legislation so that Spain can sanction individuals, entities, or countries outside the EU that violate restrictive measures imposed by the EU to promote its common foreign policy and security objectives.

To this end, the transposed European Directive - approved under the Spanish presidency of the EU - provides, among other measures, for embargoes, seizures or restrictions on imports and exports. While some of these have already been imposed on a list of Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities following Russia's aggression against Ukraine, in order to ensure compliance, the EU requires member states to harmonise their criminal sanctions to make them effective in the event of violations.

Institutional declaration on the 80th anniversary of the UN

In addition, Pilar Alegría reported on the approval of an institutional declaration on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), which will be commemorated on 24 October.

With this text, Alegría explained, the government wants to reaffirm its "commitment to multilateralism" and, above all, "to support the UN at a time of significant challenges for the international community".

Non official translation