The Government of Spain provides a boost to primary care, mental health care and suicide prevention

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Council of Ministers has authorised the proposals for the distribution of funds to the autonomous communities to develop three plans: the Primary and Community Care Plan 2025-2027, the Mental Health Action Plan 2025-2027 and the first Suicide Prevention Plan 2025. These proposals, totalling more than 229 million euros, will have to be definitively approved by the Interterritorial Health Council.

The Minister for Health, Mónica García, reiterated that these transfers complement the funds that the autonomous communities already allocate to primary care and mental health. "This is a contribution made by the Government of Spain, which in no way replaces the competences of the autonomous communities," she remarked.

€172.4 million to boost Primary Care in 2025

The Government will distribute 172.4 million euros to the autonomous communities to boost Primary Care.. 50% of the credit will be distributed directly to all communities according to their protected population, surface area, dispersion and insularity. The other 50% will be distributed among those who commit to meet certain requirements.

The Minister for Health announced that they will have to publish "new public job offers in Primary Care, prioritise the appointment of specialist nurses, fill positions that are difficult to fill and guarantee the stability of all accredited teaching units". "We want this investment to have a real impact," she added.

The minister affirmed that Primary Care is the "crucial link in the health system" as 80% of the population uses its services and it is a priority for the government.

Mónica García recalled that the Primary Care Plan 2025-2027 was approved last December to boost public health with three objectives. Firstly, putting the patient at the centre, ensuring continuity of care and home care. Secondly, improving the working conditions and skills of professionals by giving them more time and resources to exercise their competences. And thirdly, to prepare Primary Care for the challenges of the coming decades by expanding diagnostic procedures and upgrading equipment and infrastructure.

Among the many actions included in the plan, the minister mentioned the interoperability of patients' medical records so that any professional can consult them regardless of the territory; the implementation of programmes for the early detection of cases of gender-based violence in Primary Care; and the use of artificial intelligence throughout the health system to reduce the bureaucratic burden and facilitate clinical diagnosis.

39 million to boost mental health

Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Executive has also approved the distribution of €39 million to finance actions included in the Mental Health Action Plan 2025-2027, approved last April.

The minister stressed the need to boost human resources as there is a lack of experienced mental health professionals. She also expressed her concern that Spain has the highest level of psychotropic drug consumption in the European Union, especially among young people and adolescent girls. She called for a more rational use of these drugs so that "all suffering does not become a default pill".

In addition, Monica Garcia announced that the plan aims to ensure that care for patients with a mental health disorder is respectful and does not violate human rights: "That's why we are committed to community-based models and alternatives to institutionalisation. The plan will also improve care for vulnerable groups, children, adolescents, new mothers and those who suffer in silence in the workplace.

€17.83 million for the first Suicide Prevention Plan 2025

The Minister for Health also announced the distribution of 17.83 million euros to the communities so that they can implement actions to prevent suicide.

The Suicide Prevention Action Plan reinforces safety nets and integrates mental health into health surveillance systems. It includes awareness-raising campaigns in the autonomous territories, the adaptation of hospital emergencies, the protection of vulnerable groups and the strengthening of specialised care teams.

The minister stressed that the sum of transfers earmarked for mental health, which amount to more than 56 million euros, represents the largest budgetary outlay the Executive has ever made in this area. Furthermore, she recalled that additional funds to enable the autonomous communities to deploy better mental health policies have increased by 47% since there has been a progressive government in Spain.

Continued commitment to science and innovation

Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The Council of Ministers has approved two new calls for proposals to strengthen the Spanish science system.. The Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, framed this aid within the "paradigm shift" that the government led by Pedro Sánchez has brought about: the budget allocated to science doubled between 2018 and 2024, including funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). Morant pointed out that, even excluding the PRTR, investment grew by 40% and that this year, with the General Budget extended, the increase will be 18%.

"This is the commitment that, by law, this government has given us as a country: to continue steadily increasing our investment in science and innovation", the minister pointed out. Diana Morant also remarked that this "collective effort" is improving employment and productivity: in the last year, 61% of new self-employed jobs have been in the science, innovation and digitalisation sector, and some 282,000 people work in R&D in Spain, the highest figure ever and 25% more than in 2018.

Innovation at the service of citizens

One of the approved calls aims to support research in the development phase, when financial support is necessary for the research to produce meaningful results that reach the public, as Diana Morant explained. To this end, support for "proof of concept projects", totalling €30 million, will finance the early stages of development to bring a research result to a point where companies can buy it and turn it into an innovation. They can cover up to 100% of the costs of the projects, which will last for two years; normally, these are projects that have already been funded in previous calls by the State Research Agency.

The minister underlined that this year's call is funded from the national budget, while previous calls were funded by the Recovery Plan. In its three previous editions, the grants have supported 837 projects, with a total contribution of 100 million euros. As an example of the usefulness of this aid, Diana Morant referred to research into the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using hadron therapy, a cutting-edge radiotherapy technique. A project developed by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Institute of Corpuscular Physics in Valencia has obtained very good results, and the objective now is to support the development of this technology so that it can soon be applied in public hospitals.

Consolidating the network of researchers

The other call seeks to recover talent that has left Spain and provide opportunities for new generations of scientists. The minister recalled that the government launched an initial emergency plan to attract the talent of scientists who, before 2018, had to go abroad. "What we could not permit was for scientists to return and for the evolution of their scientific career not to be recognised, in other words, that returning to our country meant going backwards," the minister said.

To avoid this, the Ministry has facilitated the incorporation, stabilisation and consolidation of these researchers. The call approved today, the fourth of its kind, is aimed at researchers who want to become principal investigators and covers both their salary and that of the team they form for two years of research; in addition, their stabilisation will then be guaranteed by the contracting entity. The €25 million call for proposals will enable the consolidation of a network of around 125 researchers, each with a team of 2 to 3 people.

"In the face of those who deny science or who cut back on science, we continue to be a government that believes in science, that supports it and that relies on science to make political decisions," concluded Diana Morant.

Other agreements: new judges and prosecutors on gender-based violence and cryptocurrencies

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, announced the approval of a royal decree for the creation of 50 new posts for judges and 42 for prosecutors with the aim of reinforcing the Sections dedicated to Violence against Women that will form part of the new Courts of First Instance, a measure that was already announced by the Minister for the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations, Félix Bolaños..

With this expansion of sections, which complies with the international obligations derived from the Istanbul Convention preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the number of judges specialised in violence against women in Spain is expected to increase by almost 50%, which will allow the judicial system to improve its response and sensitivity to these cases.

As Pilar Alegría explained, the Royal Decree approved also includes the creation of three new Sections specialising in Violence against Children and Adolescents in those judicial districts where, after analysing the workload related to crimes affecting minors, it has been deemed necessary. These new sections will be implemented in Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga.

On the other hand, the spokesperson announced that the transposition into Spanish law of a European directive advancing control of cryptocurrency providers has been sent to the Spanish Parliament for final approval.

Current affairs: unemployment figures and university entrance exams

Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

Alegría referred during her intervention to the latest unemployment and Social Security affiliation figures for May, figures "of absolute importance and significance", according to the minister. "Our country is again recording record high affiliation and also the lowest unemployment rate in recent years. In fact, we have broken the 2.5 million unemployment barrier for the first time since 2008, which is to say that this is the lowest unemployment figure recorded in our country in the last 17 years", she explained.

In this context, the minister stressed that, in May, more than 42% of new contracts were permanent, which represents one in every two. Furthermore, she continued, 171,000 young people are registered as unemployed, compared to 257,000 seven years ago, "the lowest figure in the entire historical series". In addition, Alegría highlighted as "very positive" the latest female unemployment figures, which for the first time in many years show that under one and half million women are unemployed.

Finally, the Minister for Education sent a message of "confidence and reassurance" to the more than 270,000 students from all over Spain who are due to sit the university entrance exams this week. "I am sure that they will have good results, which will clearly reflect the work they have been doing all these months," she concluded.

Non official translation