Government presents Strategic Plan on Coexistence at Schools

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Council of Ministers reviewed a report on the Strategic Plan on Coexistence at Schools. The acting Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, explained that the draft plan includes a total of 70 measures that seek "to serve as a benchmark for pupils, families and teachers", in this area.

The Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, stressed that coexistence at schools is a "key" issue because "you cannot have a process of teaching and learning without a peaceful environment in the classrooms". In his opinion, this is one of the keys on which a "necessary consensus" can be reached for a National Pact for Education in Spain.

Íñigo Méndez de Vigo outlined the actions being developed in this field over several years, such as the Master Plan on coexistence and improved security in education centres and their environment, the helpline for children and adolescents in situations of risk and the training of minors and teachers in the use of the Internet and social networks.

He also highlighted the importance of actions to raise awareness: the Ministry of Education set up a web site on coexistence at schools last October, the Ministry of the Presidency will coordinate a campaign to raise awareness, and the Ministry of Public Works will issue a stamp to raise awareness in society in February on the fight against harassment.

Measures against harassment at school

Pool Moncloa J. M. CuadradoThe minister pointed out that the Strategic Plan on which his department is working sets out three main goals: cooperation between ministerial departments, the integration of the actions of different autonomous regions and the involvement of pupils, families and professionals.

Of the 70 measures that make up the project, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo underscored 10 of them. These include the implementation of a helpline for victims of harassment. The minister explained that this will be a free hotline that will leave no trail and calls will be answered by qualified experts; the public tender for this will be published in the Official State Gazette in the month of February.

Moreover, a protocol on coexistence at school will be drafted that will serve as a benchmark for teaching staff and to support those guidelines already drawn up by regional education departments, a guide for parents that will allow them to identify the signs of a possible problem of coexistence or harassment, and a manual to support victims of violence at school that offers guidelines on actions for pupils, families and teachers.

The ministerial department also seeks to reactivate the State Watchdog on Coexistence at Schools, gather together all the data available on this issue in a centralised register and call an annual State Congress on Coexistence at Schools. Moreover, guidelines will be drawn up to train teaching staff and a network of schools that serve as a model for zero tolerance on violence will be created.

"We want harassment to cease being a silent outcry, for those who suffer from this not to suffer alone, for help to be available to them, for parents and teaching staff to be capable of offering them help, and for all of us to contribute to help alleviate this problem, a problem which I realise is a serious one at this time, and of great concern for many families", concluded Íñigo Méndez de Vigo

Progress of the Spanish economy

Pool Moncloa / J. M. CuadradoThe Council of Ministers analysed a report on the progress of the Spanish economy during the last legislature and the forecasts for the close of the year 2015.

The Vice-President of the Government highlighted that "this was a period in which the Spanish economy overcame the recession and is now growing at almost double the average of the rate of the countries in the Eurozone". "We are going into 2016 at a steady rate of growth of around 3.5% and with a rate of job creation in excess of half a million per annum. This is a legislature in which jobs have started to be created, unemployment has fallen, a foreign trade surplus has been achieved and investor confidence has recovered, alongside that of international bodies and Spanish economic stakeholders", she stated.

Furthermore, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría pointed out that this week the International Monetary Fund revised its growth forecasts upwardly for the Spanish economy for 2015 for the ninth time, and that the Spanish Treasury has once again placed Treasury Bills at negative interest rates with a high level of demand. In her opinion, the backdrop against which the government tackled the start of its term of office "has been completely turned around".

The acting Minister for Economic Affairs and Competition, Luis de Guindos, reviewed the economic progress made since 2008, and concluded that "recovery is strong" at this time, and is having a very strong impact on the job market. Moreover, he forecast that we will definitively put the crisis behind us this year. "In order to come out of it, we need to return to the levels we saw at the start of 2008 and, if the forecasts being made by the majority of analysts are met, this will be achieved by the end of this year".

Growth and employment

Pool Moncloa / J. M. CuadradoLuis de Guindos recalled that Spain started to grow in 2014 higher than the Eurozone average and that, according to the latest figures available, it is growing at twice the Eurozone average and creating three times the number of jobs. He pointed out that, in terms of the Labour Force Survey (Spanish acronym: EPA), in 2009 unemployment was growing at a rate in excess of 80% in year-on-year terms, and employment was falling at more than 7% per annum. "This has been turned around. At this time, unemployment is falling at a rate in excess of 10% and employment is growing at a rate of more than 3%", he said.

"I don't know what the figures will be from the EPA next week, but I am convinced that 2015 has been the year in which unemployment has fallen by the most in the history of our country", he added.

The minister highlighted that the temporary employment rate is "clearly lower" than the level registered during the crisis, having fallen from 29% to 25%. He also stressed that "part-time jobs are being replaced by full-time jobs".

Luis de Guindos also pointed out that household debt and the debt of non-financial companies have fallen by almost 45 points of Gross Domestic Product since 2010, which translates into 450 billion euros, and stands at below 175%. He also underlined that credit is growing by around 18%.

On another note, explained the minister, Spain has gone from a deficit in its balance of payment of around 10% and indebtedness to the tune of 100 billion euros per annum to recording a surplus, "which is the clearest sign of the future sustainability of the Spanish economy".

As regards the export of goods and services, Luis de Guindos specified that this has grown by close on 10 points compared with 2008 to stand at 33.6%, while construction has reduced its weighting by half. "No-one can now say that bricks are the cornerstone of the growth of the Spanish economy".

Against this backdrop, the minister commented that the public deficit reached over 11% in 2009 whereas it now stands at below half of that. Furthermore, he announced that the forecasts in the hands of the government show that the Spanish economy "has stabilised its public debt ratio", which in the next 12 months may start to fall "if the public deficit and growth targets are maintained".

Catalonia

The Vice-President of the Government pointed out that the Ministers for the Treasury and for Justice presented a report at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on the latest actions taken by the Regional Government and the Regional Parliament of Catalonia.

After studying this report, the government has decided "to give instructions to lodge the pertinent appeal before the Constitutional Court" on two issues: on the functions of the Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency Department of the Regional Government of Catalonia and on the committee to study the constitutive process to be created under the umbrella of the Regional Parliament of Catalonia.

Other agreements

• Authorisation of the expenses for the acquisition of the work "the Virgin of Granada", by Fra Angelico, from the House of Alba, for a sum of 18 million euros. The Government Spokesperson pointed out that the value of the painting in the private market could be around 80 to 90 million euros.
• Resignation of the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of the Presidency. Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría pointed out that the under-secretary presented his offer of resignation on Friday morning "in order to defend his honour and his strict compliance with the law in his duties as the State Secretary for the Environment", his previous post.

Current affairs

Pool Moncloa / J. M. CuadradoThe Vice-President of the Government described the chartering and financing of a flight to Venezuela by the government of Nicolás Maduro on which members of Podemos, CUP and persons associated with ETA travelled to discuss a peace plan in the Basque Country and the right to self-determination of the peoples of Spain, as an "encroachment on national sovereignty".

"What the Spanish people are to be is to be decided on by the people of Spain as a whole and I do not believe that making notes in Venezuela is the most appropriate course for my country", she stressed. Consequently, added Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation has summoned the Venezuelan Ambassador in Madrid "on a mandatory and very necessary" basis to convey the government's complaint on this issue and on the offensive language used by Maduro to describe President of the Government Rajoy.

The Minister for Economic Affairs and Competition pointed out that the current process of economic deceleration that is taking place, above all in emerging countries, the tougher monetary policy of the United States and the sharp fall in oil prices is having an immediate impact on the slowdown of the capital markets that "should not be exaggerated". In relation to Spain, the situation is having a positive net balance that may amount to more than 15 billion euros and additional growth of 0.5 points.

The risks at the present time, continued Luis de Guindos, are that instability is generated due to political uncertainty, that the reforms undertaken by the present government are reversed and that the future position on Catalonia "is not as clear as the present one".