Speech by President of the Government of Spain at presentation of Recovery Plan in Aragon

Zaragoza

PEDRO SÁNCHEZ, PRESIDENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN

Good day, President of the Regional Parliament of Aragon, councillors of the Regional Government of Aragon, and also presidents of the provincial councils of Aragon, trade union leaders, business owners and dear Regional President Lambán. Firstly, we have finally been able to hold this important event for the Government of Spain in this land, which we have had to cancel twice already, to explain, firstly, the main pillars of the Recovery Fund. And furthermore, for me it is a pleasure to be here with you in this land, in Zaragoza, in Aragon - a land that if it has been characterised by certain virtues, one of which is determination.

And that is where I would like to start because often great actions, those that then transform our lives, start with very simple gestures, such as loyalty to a firm and sustained decision in the face of uncertainties, and we are indeed going through times of tremendous uncertainty, and business owners are well aware of that. And also with the capacity to maintain the right attitude in the face of difficulties, doubts and scepticism which may obviously appear as a result of these uncertainties.

I say all of this because 120 years ago a woman was born in Aragon who perfectly embodies all of this. I am referring, as you can imagine, to María Moliner, the author of a dictionary that revolutionised the way we study and write what is now the second most widely spoken native language in the world, that is, Spanish. Our language.

We continue to be amazed; moreover, that María drafted such a work in her own hand, at home, over the course of more than 15 long years. We are probably even more amazed by the disproportion between the greatness of the achievement and the frugality of the resources she had in her grasp to achieve this exploit. And, if you will allow me, we are amazed that she was able to do this with discretion and genuinely exceptional humility.

She and her work remind us that, above all, the revolutions of progress are a question of attitude, and also of aptitude, but attitude, above all. Because aside from the circumstances, born of personal conviction, of discipline, of the tenacity that can only be sustained by the strongest conviction of goodness and excellence of what one is doing. We need to believe, and that is what I wanted to refer to, in our projects and in our capabilities. We must trust sufficiently to push them through regardless of any obstacles or hurdles that may spring up on the way.

In the conviction that we have made the right commitment so that this certainty allows us to carry them through and develop them regardless of the consequences.

And that is the way to make progress, with humility, with discipline, with conviction and a vision of the future, which is precisely what this land and its business owners and workers have always demonstrated over the course of their history. And this is the lesson that such men and women as María Moliner taught us. We can speak of how to write an amazing work, as in her case or of how to overcome a health emergency, as we are doing right now, or of how to overcome any adversity - we have seen this, moreover, with the demonstration by this society, that of Aragon and of Spain in recent days, during the storm we suffered - and of how to renew, transform and improve the economic and social structures of a country which we needed even before the outbreak of the pandemic, and now, after the pandemic, this will be even more pressing. That does not matter; in all these cases we are calling for the same virtues - this attitude of triumph and of overcoming, which is what, in short, gathers us here today in Zaragoza.

This is the spirit of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for the Spanish economy that I always like to personify. Because we must bring it down to earth and humanise it in the examples of thousands, I would say millions of Spanish men and women who promote what Spain is each day, what we already are and, more importantly, our right to be more than what we are, which is already a great deal.

Barely ten months ago, as Regional President Lambán reminded us earlier, we were hit by the worst pandemic, the worst global calamity of the last century. We had to act, as did all mankind; we had to do this without an instruction manual, and without science having any clear knowledge of this new virus. We had to do this with the tools within our grasp, some of them severely lacking, like face masks, although we now have the guarantee of being able to dress adequately to protect ourselves from the curve of contagion of this COVID-19, to save lives and to attend to the economic and social emergency.

We had and we have a single common goal, which is to save lives and also to save companies and jobs.

We resorted, in the first place, to the fully legitimate and constitutional tool of the state of emergency. At the same time, we deployed a raft of unprecedented economic and social measures because the challenge we faced was also unprecedented in the democratic history of our country. We mobilised some 200 billion euros to protect companies, to save companies, and also to save and protect jobs. More than 3.5 million workers were protected under a Temporary Lay-off Plan (Spanish acronym: ERTE) at the toughest times of the lockdown. There are still some 700,000 workers protected under an ERTE, but this is a long way from those 3.6 million workers we had at the most difficult and toughest times of the lockdown.

We set up, for the first time in our democracy, an extraordinary benefit for independent contractors, which we have just renewed precisely this week, which benefited close to 1.5 million independent contractors; in other words, half of all those registered as self-employed in the social security system. We set up moratoriums on mortgage debts, with automatic extensions to property rental contracts that had expired. We set up the Minimum Living Income, in record time, undertaking a structural reform that unified criteria around the country, managing to reach some 160,000 households in which some 460,000 people live and, let's not forget, in a country that suffers from child poverty, with 2.5 million boys and girls at risk of poverty. We provided a national response to a global health crisis. We knew that we had only one option faced with this calamity, which was to resist to move on, supporting each other through the strength of unity, as the President of the Regional Government of Aragon rightly said in his speech.

Firstly, dialogue had to be established, as we have also done at a national level, dear Javier, with the social stakeholders, with the trade unions, with the organisations of business owners, who I will always be grateful to for their attitude and responsibility, and their defence of the common interest, of the general interest over these long months of the pandemic, forging seven major agreements to extend the: ERTEs until the month of May, and thus protect 700,000 workers and many companies. And secondly, dialogue with Europe - Europe dialogued with Europe and Spain with other countries. We promoted, after a great deal of effort and dedication and finally, fortunately, we were successful in calling for a joint Recovery Plan, a great Marshall Plan to not only recover what was lost as a result of the pandemic, but become aware of the changes that came from before the pandemic, which had become even more pressing, and consequently, we had to give a positive response to these transitions - ecological and digital - and also give an integrating perspective from a social, territorial and gender point of view to these transitions. Transitions which will be addressed and which come from and must include the social and territorial majority of our country, and not exclude precisely the most vulnerable groups. It is true that calls for unity do not unfortunately always bear fruit, particularly at a parliamentary level. But this lack of unity was superseded by others that were more powerful at a social level, in Europe, and I also wish to highlight this, regional president, at a regional level.

That is how we overcame the first wave of the pandemic, with a state of emergency that works, with hard work and social discipline. That is also how we tackled the second wave and we are now fighting the third wave with the same tools and, I would also say, with renewed vigour.

We have a State Strategy to flatten the curve, which is tried and tested. We know how to flatten the curve, approved by the regional governments and the Government of Spain through the Inter-territorial Council of the National Health System, with common indictors, with common actions and also with enough time to be able to evaluate the efficacy of the measures being implemented.

And we also have extensive accumulated experience in combating the virus and a clear course of how to tackle it effectively. And unlike the other waves we have suffered from over the long almost 12 months of the pandemic, there is a difference that I would say is transcendental, we have a definitive weapon against COVID-19, which is the vaccine - this is the great difference with this third wave we are suffering from compared with the first and second waves.

We were the first country in the European Union - alongside Germany - that approved a complete Vaccination Plan. And this is a joint task implemented by the Ministry of Health with the regional councillors since back in the month of September. The first country, together with Germany, to approve a State Vaccination Plan. By planning in advance so that all the priority groups could be guaranteed access to the vaccine, while being fair and very strict in the distribution of the doses.

We began the vaccination process on 27 December, not long ago, and started to meet out targets. The first - to vaccinate all those in care homes and healthcare workers - has now been achieved. The second, now underway, is to start to gradually vaccinate new age groups. Starting with those over the age of 80, and then dropping down through the age groups while vaccinating more professionals and always protecting the weakest until everyone is vaccinated.

Just look, the vaccine will be a driver of the economic recovery in 2021. And thanks to this, we will soon have more people vaccinated than infected. We have already exceeded the figure of 1 million people vaccinated. We started on 27 December and have now exceeded the figure of 1 million men and women vaccinated in our country. We are in ninth position globally in the vaccination process. And in the number of doses administered, we stand in third position in the European Union.

That is why, I trust, and the Government of Spain trusts, that by the end of the first half of 2021, close to 20 million Spanish men and women will have been vaccinated. You are aware that herd immunity is calculated when at least 60% of the population has been immunised. Well, we want 70% of Spanish men and women to be protected by the summer. That is the Government of Spain's target. That is what the Government of Spain wants to see and that is what Europe proposes. Hence, both the Vaccination Plan and the state of emergency are working well. We are completing our tasks and complying with the timeline and also with the scheduled calendar.

Just look, the European Medicines Agency approved the first vaccine on 21 December, the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. Spain received the first doses on 26 December last year. The Moderna vaccine was then approved on 6 January. And we received the first doses on 12 January. AstraZeneca/Oxford applied for authorisation on 12 January. And the European Medicines Agency may take its decision by 29 January. In total, Spain has processed, to date, the acquisition of more than 105 million doses of the vaccine developed by five of the six pharmaceutical companies with which the European Commission has reached an agreement.

We handed over to the regional authorities a total of 1.31 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and 35,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine. And by yesterday, 82% of the doses had been administered. Specifically, Aragon has received to date 42,465 doses of which it has administered practically 90%.

And I wanted to add something else that is very important, which is that the Spain Brand is represented in the vaccines. I would like to stress the fact that the pharmaceutical company Moderna chose Laboratories Rovi, which has its central headquarters in Madrid, and also has a presence in other regions of Spain that I have had the honour of visiting some weeks ago, to bottle up to 600 million doses of its vaccine for the European, Canadian, Asian and part of the American market. And the pharmaceutical company Janssen, which is another of the vaccines that we will receive shortly, has reached an agreement with the Catalan laboratory - Reig Jofre - to manufacture its vaccine on a large scale in Spain, which at present is still at the research stage, but which I believe we will also be able to count on in the near future. And the Spanish-Argentinian pharmaceutical company - Insud Pharma - will manufacture from its plant in Azuqueca de Henares, in the province of Guadalajara, part of the international production of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca-Oxford.

In other words, we not only have this capacity to acquire the vaccines, but our companies are also helping their production and manufacture. And even more importantly, there are 11 Spanish vaccine projects working on pre-clinical trials with animals, for example, the project run by the CSIC, by Professor Mariano Esteban, which has shown - yesterday we saw this precisely in the media that 100% of the animals infected were protected - or the project run by Luis Enjuanes, whose vaccine, unlike the rest, produces sterilising immunity. Furthermore, we are proud that another four vaccine projects could be ready for the clinical trial stage in the first few months of this year with very powerful and effective results.

You will thus remember that the first person to be vaccinated, precisely with the Pfizer vaccine in our country was in Guadalajara, a 96 year-old woman - Araceli Hidalgo - who lives in a care home, specifically the Los Olmos care home in Guadalajara. On 18 January, I remember we all woke up with a smile on our faces, precisely when we saw that she had received the second dose of the vaccine and when she also made a comment, which was along the lines: "Let me tell everyone to take the vaccine". She is a woman, if we look back a little, who was born in the 1920s, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, who grew up in the 2nd Republic, who survived the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime, and consequently, who has borne witness and played a role in the democracy of our country. And in the midst of the pandemic she has said something that touched my heart which was something like this: "We must fight to do away with this virus". That is why, what I want to say to you is that if Araceli is not giving up, then Aragon and Spain must not give up.

We still clearly have some tough months ahead of us, we are seeing that in the intensive care units, in availability of hospital beds and we can never say enough to thank the constant work and dedication of our healthcare professionals, who I wish to pay tribute to again, and lastly, an emotional memory on the part of the Government of Spain and of all the public institutions. We will remain on guard. But I want to be clear on this: we still have some tough months ahead of us. But we have hope and confidence because we are heading in the right direction. But for this to happen, we must not forget the most important thing, and I want to say this as the President of the Government and never forget it, and remember this in each of our public appearances, which is that the vaccine should not mean that we drop our guard at any time. We know that the best way to prevent the spread is for us all to act as if we were infected. Let's look after our hygiene and maintain social distancing. And then we will continue to make progress in fighting the pandemic.

I believe that the most striking lesson this second wave left us with and that must raise awareness, in my opinion, more so than in the third wave in which we have made progress in having a vaccine, is that we cannot relax our efforts because then every forward step in terms of progress will be followed by a step backwards. What we must do is persevere, persist… I understand everyone is tired and fed up with the pandemic, but we must persevere and persist because we are at the beginning of the end of this pandemic. For our part, we will continue acting with thoroughness in applying our experts' knowledge, whom I would also like to pay tribute to, along with the merit and public service of the illustrious people of Aragon who head up such important institutions as the CCAES, as in the case of Dr. Simón, also in collaboration with other institutions and with the necessary social discipline so as to definitively defeat this pandemic.

And meanwhile, we must tackle this health emergency, of course, but we must also look at the socio-economic emergency we are facing that Regional President Lambán mentioned earlier.

And if we will always remember 2020 as the year of the pandemic and as the year of resistance, and we have indeed resisted, then 2021 must be the year of confidence, and consequently, the year of the economic recovery.

And that is why we are presenting the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The most ambitious economic reconversion project in the democratic history of our country. I always mention this, the structural funds in the 1980s and 90s amounted to 8 billion euros over six years. Here we are talking about 140 billion euros in six years.

We have already presented this Plan to Europe and are ready to implement it now. This project, as I just said, amounts to 140 billion euros through the Next Generation EU fund, of which we will be able to draw down close to 72 billion euros in direct transfers in the first three.

We want to see the economic recovery start now, not wait a year or two, but start this year. This is the scenario - 72 billion euros in three years. Four transformations to boost a Spain that must be more digital, that must be more sustainable and that much be more cohesive and fairer. And this Spain must be more feminist. This is also economically important, because we are talking about 51% of the Spanish population and consequently it presents a tremendous opportunity to raise our rate of activity and our potential growth.

Hence, four great transformations that will sum up our government action and which must have the sole aim, over and above any other, of creating companies, protecting companies and creating jobs and more jobs. According to the figures we have at this time, around 800,000 jobs could be created over the next three years.

And this scenario, in my opinion, has an upward trend at this time, looking at it cautiously, yet with hope, which I want to see realized. In fact, in the third quarter of the year we achieved economic growth of 16.4%, way above expectations. But, as a result of this lockdown we went through in the second quarter of the year, this amounted to a drop in GDP of around 17%.

And on another note, we are also seeing some positive signs in the job market, with eight straight months of positive figures. In December, we saw another 26,000 contributors added to the social security system to stand at above 19 million workers.

What does this mean? Well, it means that almost 590,000 jobs have been recovered since the lowest point of the health crisis.

And it is important that we also value something else very important, because this generates certainty, confidence, political stability, which results in economic stability, which is the successful passage through Parliament of the National Budget after two years of being blocked, and hence no new Budget since 2018.

This country Budget will inject 27 billion euros into the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. In other words, we are already implementing this Plan because we have anticipated the resources in the National Budget that has been in force since 1 January 2021.

A Budget that received the backing of no more and no less than 188 votes in favour out of a possible 350 in the Lower House. I say this proudly because it is the first time in the history of our democracy that the public accounts have been approved with this level of plural support. 11 different political parties, something which, in my opinion, comes from negotiation and the unity of the majority to the benefit of everyone, in short, to the benefit of the common interest.

I believe that the strength of unity to tackle the biggest challenge of recent decades is also reflected in this Budget.

First, we want, as you know, and the President of the Regional Government of Aragon mentioned this before, for Spain to be green. In simple terms, what we want is to place Spain at the forefront of the ecological transition on our continent.

And I believe we have the foundations to do this and Aragon is a good example of that. What do we aspire to? We aspire to speed up the quantitative targets of our National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan that we presented to the European Commission in 2018 by 40%. We want to bring forward the intermediate targets set some time back for 2025 to 2023 and we want to see a land this like, clearly linked to the automotive sector, with 250,000 new electric vehicles by 2023; in other words, in two years' time, as a step towards achieving 5 million electric vehicles by the year 200, and roll out 100,000 charge points for these electric vehicles throughout the country.

Our real challenge is to achieve a 100% renewable energy system by the year 2050, to which end we recently approved the regulation on future renewable installations through auctions. Hence, we want to give national and international investors certainty to push through these renewable energies, providing them with a stable and attractive framework for their investments.

The initiatives underway will mean, to give you an idea, mobilising some 100 billion euros over the next 20 years. We aspire to a green revolution where I feel that Aragon has all the makings, all the capacities, dear regional president, to head this up. Following the lines of the 2000 Biodiversity and Red Natura Strategy of Aragon.

Because this land, as Regional President Lambán precisely mentioned earlier in the meeting we held prior to this event, has been proactive for many years in boosting renewable energies. He mentioned to me earlier how the era of Regional President Marcelino set up the Hydrogen Foundation of Aragon. Hence, the vision was already there and a course has been set and embarked upon.

Business models have also been reinvented with just one clear commitment, which is to sustainability and the creation of stable jobs and economic growth.

And I also wanted to praise the work of some of the companies, because there are some clear examples here in Aragon. We have, for example, SAMCA which, through its subsidiary Novapet, wishes to convert this land into a European cornerstone for the recovery and recycling of PET plastic.

Then you have the SaiCa group - a continental leader in the manufacture of recycled paper for corrugated board in Europe - and the Térvalis group - specialised in nutrition, in logistics and in renewables - and a company that is very emblematic for Spain, which is Pikolín.

And I cannot forget, as I said before, the Hydrogen Foundation of Aragon, which has been working for more than 15 years in the rollout of hydrogen technologies, and companies such as Abora Solar, which has created the most efficient solar panels not only in the Spanish and European market, but in the world.

There is undoubtedly a long list of companies, increasingly more diversified and cutting edge in the field of the ecological transition.

Together with the ecological transition what we want is for Spain to take a qualitative and definitive leap towards digitalisation. In line with a roadmap we presented some months ago, during last year, the Digital Spain Agenda 2025, approved in July 2020.

A Spain that is definitively committed to science and innovation, which is one of the tasks we are facing and, moreover, one of the great lessons we must take away from this pandemic.

What is our aspiration? To modernise our business fabric. Digitalisation not only means connecting our computer terminals to broadband, it also means changing the way we operate, the way we take decisions and work at a business level. And this is what we want, in short, to gain competitiveness for our companies at an international level. Meanwhile, what we want is to meet our targets, as I said before, that are fully social and, let's say, committed to cohesion. In this case to the Social Committee.

What we want is for 80% of the Spanish people to receive training in digital skills, because this will mean we are improving their capacities and employability. We want to see 75% of them with 5G coverage, which is necessary to drive Industry 4.0 in our country and for everyone in Spain, wherever they may live, to have fast Internet, allowing economic activity to be generated in areas that have been isolated until now.

In short, we want to incorporate in the digitalisation and ecological transition process a perspective of cohesion and integration. Because progress can only truly be achieved if this is extended and redistributed to the social majority of our country.

I feel that Aragon offers us a very clear example of what we are talking about. The Barrabes group, which I have also had the chance to see first-hand. Well, we know that this stemmed from a family business involving material from Benasque Mountain, and has given rise to a large conglomerate of companies that provide all types of services: consultancy, advice, training and communication for companies not just in Europe but around the world.

And I also want to highlight an initiative that this group set in motion in 2020, which is the 'Attitude Academy' platform. This is a free platform, as you know, to help SMEs digitalise their workforce and their operations during this health emergency we are suffering form

Such companies in Aragon as Arpa, CerTest Biotec and OX-CTA have used their innovative profile in the fight against COVID-19, which I would like to highlight.

And we must undoubtedly underline the extraordinary role that the Huesca Technology Park WALQA has played in this region, along with the Zaragoza Logistics Center research institute and the Zaragoza Logistics Platform, which have decisively contributed, I would say, to making Aragon a privileged centre of technological entrepreneurship.

Hence, the ecological transition, the digital transition, and, as I said before, we want to see a much more cohesive and inclusive Spain.

To give you an idea, what underpins the Recovery Fund is a clear defence of the European Single Market. What we cannot tolerate is that there is greater territorial divergence between countries after this health emergency, which would consequently diminish the potential economic development capacities of the Single Market.

There is so much for us to do in Spain. We cannot come out of this crisis with a first-class, a second-class and a third-class Spain. We must guarantee equal opportunities for all Spaniards, wherever they may live. And that is the commitment of the Government of Spain, which is why this important concept in our country - cohesion - which is so integrating, is incorporated as one of the key elements to explain this process and the success of the projects under this Recovery Fund.

I feel that the pandemic has clearly shown the need to visualise a new concept of progress, that allows insufferable and unbearable gaps for all of us present here today to be closed, for the social majority of this country, which are the social and territorial gaps with intergenerational justice - let's not forget our young people, once again the most prejudiced this crisis. Let's guarantee them a life project, a job, a home, and undoubtedly contribute to such an important environment for Aragon as rural development.

Let's think of groups like DIVERSIS Corporación, which has spent more than 20 years providing logistical and industrial services that are integrating and socially responsible. Or initiatives like PRODES, a non-profit entity from Huesca engaged in training and social action to develop projects that focus on the well-being of the people of Aragon. Or examples like Afammer Aragón, a non-profit and independent NGO that prepares women from the countryside to join the job market.

All of these show how the transformations we are heading towards can be a source of wealth in different enclaves, contributing so much to territorial cohesion and the well-being of the nation. In short, to a balance in economic development, which I feel is very important to recover in the wake of this pandemic.

Fourthly, what we want to see is a Spain without gender gaps, with real equality between men and women. I just said that our young people are the most prejudiced by this crisis, well women are as well. We are seeing how they have been expelled from the job market, and consequently, the activity rate is less than we had already been suffering from, which was already low, before this pandemic.

And to this end we can count on very important references from this region of Aragon as Ana Solana Castillo, Senior Human Resources Manager for Europe and Asia-Pacific of Exide Technologies and also the President of Executives of Aragon - an entity which, as you know, seeks equal opportunities in management, enhancing the visibility of access by women to both companies and institutions.

This can be seen in such cases as Esther Borao, Director of the Technology Institute of Aragon, and Silvia Gil, a woman from Teruel who will be the first female Guardia Civil Commander in its 176 years of history, which may sound easy to say.

I feel that these women show the way to do away with such an unfair and prejudicial handicap in all regions and in all dimensions in our country. They are clearly one of the stimuli of the EU funds through this Plan, which will be a decisive factor, I can tell you now, in pushing through our goal of reducing the inequality gap suffered by women compared with men.

As regards these four transformations, the Plan develops ten guiding policies, with a very marked distribution of funds and priorities, which you are aware of as they are public, and which I will briefly remind you of now.

Firstly, the urban and rural agenda, the fight against depopulation and agricultural development. I believe this pillar is fundamental and closely linked to the socio-economic reality of this land, of Aragon.

Secondly, resilient infrastructures and ecosystems.

Thirdly, the just and inclusive energy transition, also very important for this land.

Fourthly, a public administration that must finally belong to the 20th Century, from all points of view, which clearly needs to be digitally enhanced.

In fifth place, the modernisation and digitalisation of our productive fabric with digitalisation projects for small- and medium-sized enterprises in our country.

In sixth place, the Science Pact, which is key and necessary. We must guarantee stability in public investment in science over the coming years; we need this and, moreover, we have the foundations for our country to be at the vanguard in scientific world.

Education and knowledge, which I will refer to later, which will be fundamental in each and every plan and project.

The new care economy and employment policies, employability and active employment policies must all clearly be addressed. Furthermore, after what we have seen regarding the care and protection of the elderly, dear regional president and colleagues, we clearly need to address this care economy to make it more effective and even less costly because we can achieve the two things and particularly and effectively protect our elderly from future pandemics that may break out, let's hope that in the distant future but which undoubtedly happen.

And another very important issue, because these are sectors that have suffered and form part of our DNA, not just of our industry, but also of our identity as a country, which is the cultural industry and sport.

And finally, a modernisation that we must address from the point of view of the fiscal system, when this becomes relevant, when we recover the level of GDP of prior to the pandemic, and which, in the medium and the long term guarantee much more inclusive and sustainable development.

Lastly, the Plan is accompanied, as you know, because this was made public and approved, by a Royal Decree-Law that we approved on 30 December last year, which is a major overhaul of the public administration. I believe this is the first cornerstone of the great revolution we are undertaking of the public administration, which we have been called to do by many business sectors when we were talking about how to structure this Recovery Fund.

In short, you should be aware that this Royal Decree, which will revolutionise the public administration, has seen some elements reformed in its budgetary management, we have speeded up the procedures on environmental evaluations, we have introduced new instruments for public-private collaboration, which will be fundamental in heading up such important projects through public-private collaboration as green hydrogen, electric vehicles and batteries for these vehicles, and which will precisely require co-investment and enhanced public-private collaboration due to the scale of the projects we are referring to. And all of this while maintaining the necessary guarantees and controls vis-à-vis the EU institutions.

I wanted to complete this presentation by calling for regional governments to find a mirror in this Royal Decree to inspire them to also remove some administrative burdens that help us absorb these finds, which will also be managed by the regional governments, and highlight two criteria that guide the Plan.

Firstly, the key goal is the creation of as many potential job opportunities in the short term. We need hundreds of thousands of dignified, sustainable and inclusive jobs. When we talk about the urban agenda we are talking about urban renewal, refurbishments, where we can be competitive because we have a tremendously competitive construction sector. When we talk about renewable energies, we are also talking about engineering, and we are talking about a great many jobs in this region. Jobs that will represent progress and help us develop towards the Spain we deserve. That is the first point; hence, the first goal is to create jobs in the short term, to reduce the unemployment rates we have for such important groups as our children - the young people of this country.

And secondly, what we must do is undertake a reform - a genuine revolution of education and training, that is promoted through legislative action and the Recovery Funds. This Plan makes no sense without the commitment to education and training.

Almost one fifth of the resources we will invest under this Plan are allocated to education, which in the case of the Budget, which is where these Recovery Funds will go, amounts to a 70% increase to stand at almost 4.9 billion euros.

Resources to boost, for example, initiatives we believe are decisive, such as the Educate in Digital Programme, which will provide 500,000 devices to students at public centres at risk of digital disconnection.

Resources to develop the PROA+ Programme: 40 million euros so that the regions can strengthen the functioning of their education centres with more vulnerable pupils.

Resources to guarantee the connectivity of the university network, through the Plan to digitalise our universities, and also to strengthen equality, through the allocation of 2.9 billion euros in grants - the largest allocation in our country's democratic history.

To achieve this, not only the resources are essential but also something else very important, which is that this education revolution must be founded on the right legislative framework, and hence the LOMLOE, approved by a large parliamentary majority in the Lower House just a few weeks ago, with two main objectives:

The first, the transformation and modernisation of the Spanish education system.

The second, to strengthen the very heart of the education system, which is public education, to modernise it, make it more inclusive and offer quality education, which leaves no child without the opportunities to develop their full potential. Because 30.3% of children in Spain are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. And because we want to provide the right response to these 90% of boys and girls without resources in public schools and provide them with an opportunity.

Together with this, the education and training revolution. I have spoken a great deal with companies, and also with workers' representatives about the fact that it is not by chance that we have called the department the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. Because the future of new jobs created necessarily involves vocational training, intermediate qualifications, training that has the ability to be quality and avant-garde and is absolutely in line with the needs of our country's companies. Just yesterday I met with a great multinational in Spain and I was told that 60% of job offers are not covered, not because there is no-one unemployed but due to a lack of qualifications, which is unacceptable in a country with a youth unemployment rate above 40% and a general unemployment rate above 16%. We must resolve this, to which end at the heart of this education revolution we must include a new Vocational Training Act, which allows us to cover these intermediate qualification job positions. These are quality, well-paid jobs, as the business owners present here are aware. This vocational training must be dual, and what we are going to do for the first time ever is unify under this Act vocational training from the education system with vocational training for jobs, which is one of the overdue demands from the business fabric and something we will introduce this year.

We are going to create 200,000 places over the next three years for vocational training students. We will update the list of qualifications, which we started in 2018, and we will create others related to emerging sectors, as we are doing, in such fields as Big Data, cybersecurity and renewable energies.

Hence, education and jobs; jobs and education, because they are synonymous. This is the path the Recovery Fund will take. The path that will lead us to the Spain we deserve. The path which, and I don't doubt this, will be successful, with Aragon's contribution.

This is our framework of action. We must now address its essential element - turning it into specific actions that transform the Spanish economy in a real and effective fashion and launch us into the future.

And the first step in this process, a decisive step, is the approval of the new budgetary horizon that I mentioned a few minutes ago. This is fundamental; we cannot tackle the health emergency, the economic reconversion ahead of us with a Budget from 2018. In fact, we have had to tackle the health emergency with a Budget from 2018, to give you an idea of the deficiencies with which all the institutions have had to tackle the emergency, as a result of the parliamentary impasse.

We have worked thinking of Spain's recovery in the wake of a terrible pandemic, and not thinking of political games.

Thinking of the possibility of harnessing this historic opportunity, which it is, believe me, and which it will be, and not thinking of this sterile and fleeting political debate. Let me be clear in our intentions: we are not looking at this on a small scale. We are looking at what Spain and Aragon can gain from this.

A region that will receive a volume of resources amounting to more than 4.4 billion euros in 2021 will gain from this. With a real investment of 504.3 million euros, which amounts to 4.2% of the total distributed to the regions; in other words, a higher percentage than its contribution to national GDP, which stands at 3.1% and than its percentage of the national population, which stands at 2.8%. In other words, the efforts being made to the development of Aragon are very significant

The more than 303,000 men and women of Aragon whose contributory pensions will increase by 0.9% will gain from this, above all those on minimum pensions and the more than 7,000 pensioners who will see their non-contributory pensions rise by 1.8%.

The families in Aragon that will receive more than 79 million euros from childbirth allowances and childcare, and more than 32 million euros for children in their care or disability, will gain from this. Those families that will benefit from the increase in the dependency provision, which will amount to 2.35 billion euros this year - the largest amount ever under this item - will benefit from this, and from the 20 million euros that will correspond to Aragon under the items allocated to boost the care economy and consolidate a well- grounded Welfare State.

The more than 6,700 men and women of Aragon that will enjoy the increase in paternity leave from 12 to 16 weeks will gain from this - one of the greatest demands from feminists to guarantee real equality in job opportunities between men and women, because real equality between men and women is an indisputable goal for a society of the future like ours, from the point of view of real justice and economic potential.

The more than 17,000 students who will benefit from the 41.8-million euro investment in grants, because money must never be a reason to stop studying in a society of the future like ours. And this is very important because many people have had to stop studying due to the cuts in the grants policy.

The more than 14,000 young people in Aragon who will benefit from the Action Plan for Youth Employment, with an investment of more than 15 million euros, and those who fall under the Action Plan for Vocational Training and employability, with a provision of more than 11 million euros, because creating quality jobs, as we said before, also means consolidating a society of the future like ours.

The whole region of Aragon gains from the more than 100 million euros for the ecological transition from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, and the 93.48 million euros in projects primarily aimed at water infrastructures, something very important for this region.

The more than 39 million euros to finance railway services declared as a Public Service Obligation. The 113.6 million euros allocated to creating highway infrastructures, including investment in the A-68. The 667 million euros allocated to agriculture, the more than 14 million euros to housing in Aragon, and the more than 41 million euros to refurbish residential environments and public buildings, which almost 20,000 households will benefit from in Aragon - not an abstract figure.

The reopening of the Canfranc tunnel, where the Minister for Transport was just a few days ago with the Regional President of Aragon. The boost to the works under the Water Pact in Yesa. The refurbishment of Montearagón Castle and the final push to complete the new Veruela Parador [luxury State-run hotel].

Dozens of actions, which are not abstract, which have a real and effective impact on jobs, on well-being and on companies in Aragon - that is the commitment of the Government of Spain.

What Javier, the regional president, said before is true, which is very important in my opinion, which is knowing that we are not alone in this. We know that the Draft Regional Budget for Aragon is fully aligned with the transformations and priorities established by Europe and by the Central Government.

The figures could not be clearer. Around 38% of all funding will go to healthcare; 18% to education; 24% will be channelled towards growing the economy; 7.7% to social rights… In other words, a regional Budget that is also historic in addressing an historic task to tackle the pandemic and reconvert our economy to guarantee prosperity and progress in the years to come.

7.45 billion euros - up 15.3% on the previous Budget, to halt the pandemic and reconvert the economy and enhance the possibilities of growth and prosperity in Aragon.

We also know that the Regional Government of Aragon has introduced mechanisms; the regional president mentioned this to me earlier, to attract funding. The interdepartmental committee, the social dialogue board, which the Regional President of Aragon mentioned before and the involvement of the Federation of Municipalities, Districts and Provinces of Aragon - this is key, when we speak about many of these policies, for example, we are going to need the provincial councils, whose work I also wish to acknowledge in this health, economic and social emergency - and hence, I feel that this all represents the enthusiasm, the hope, the confidence and the capacities of this land on the part of its institutions as regards the European funds.

For example, the actions that aspire to convert the Ebro Valley into the Hydrogen Valley, with cutting-edge measures on decarbonisation and mobility regarding the potential of this green energy. Such infrastructures as the Zaragoza-Puerto de Algeciras Rolling Highway, with a clear impact on reducing CO2 in the mainland transport of goods and the Riberas Plan of the Ebro 2030 programme, which will enhance the resilience to flooding and reactivate the forestry sector.

Initiatives to boost the digitalisation and modernisation of the agri-food industry, which is so important for this region, a key sector that accounts for 10% of your regional GDP. But also the comprehensive digitalisation of the regional public authorities in Aragon. I feel that Aragon is boosting innovation in the new model of e-government for the coming decades, in which services have to be, must be and will continue to be fully digital.

Initiatives to convert, for example, the iconic Spain Pavilion at the Expo site on the A.0 Campus, a benchmark centre of the new model of training being pushed through by the Regional Government of Aragon.

Actions to enhance electro-mobility, as the President of the Regional Government of Aragon mentioned, supporting the investment by PSA in the transformation of its plant in Figueruelas. And also to stimulate major regional public-private collaboration projects of the circular economy, which I mentioned earlier at the meeting the regional president and I held, in such areas as paper industries and the plastics industry, which are also so important for this land… The maintenance of the care ecosystems, which I believe is fundamental, is one of the lessons we must take away from this pandemic. We must build a new care model that will reconvert the current model of care homes for the elderly as a driver of revitalisation and social innovation, adapted to the context of rural depopulation.

Just look, we have absolute confidence in the capacities of Aragon to implement and manage these and many other associated projects which will undoubtedly arise as we implement other projects. It is not by chance that this region is one of the leading regions in the absorption of the European funds, with no more and no less than 80% implementation of the ERDF Funds and 90% implementation of the European Social Fund.

Hence, on the part of the Government of Spain, what I can tell you is that we are ready to work side-by-side with the Regional Government of Aragon, and also with the provincial councils and with each and every local authority in Aragon, from the largest to the smallest, always to the general benefit of everyone, and with the participation of all.

I will end now. I wish to do so by recalling what I said at the start of my speech about María Moliner. Her example of tenacity and her capacity to see the need for a work over and above any difficulties in carrying it out.

Consequently, I am thinking about the boys and girls studying today in the classrooms of Zaragoza, of Aragon and throughout Spain. In the new María Moliner and the new Ramón y Cajal. In our young university students that are so well-prepared and who want to play a part with dignity in a world that may and will undoubtedly benefit from their tremendous potential. And in thinking about them, today's young men and women, and in remembering certain exemplary figures from our past, my sensation is always the same - which is that we should maintain those values of constancy, of a desire to overcome, of determination but without the difficulties that they had to face.

And we will persevere. We will persevere in a desire for unity. I know that unity is not easy. We have seen this for many years in Spanish political life. Since the start of this health emergency I had made dozens of calls for unity. Many of them have proven possible while others have fallen on stony ground. And they have been ignored and even responded to with ferocious attacks. But they don't get me down, they don't dishearten us. We will continue to work for unity and call for unity.

No disaster distinguishes between political hues. Nature, through Storm Filomena, has taught us another great lesson.

I repeat; no disaster distinguishes between political hues, not natural disasters, diseases or economic downturns. All our fellow countrymen suffer from the same problems, and the response from their representatives must be the same.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. This is even more reason to continue in this endeavour, to continue working towards unity, to continue improving, in short, together.

We want to see a country that serves to maintain us and stimulate us, for it to be a fertile land for all of us, men and women alike, and where everyone can shine and prosper. I repeat, for everyone, according to their own aptitudes, because we are all essential for building this great nation, this plural, prosperous society of well-being, without exception.

Without looking at merits of excellence, without leaving anyone behind.

This is the country we are here working for.

I am convinced that we will achieve this, that the Spain mapped out in the Plan I have presented here to you today, responds to all these challenges in a worthy fashion.

Spain with the participation of all men and women.

I am convinced we will achieve this. Again, thank you very much for coming here. Thank you very much for your time, for your participation and the commitment of the public institutions of Aragon and, dear Javier, we will undoubtedly put 2020 behind us and this year, 2021, will undoubtedly be the year of the recovery, because we are going to address the great transformations that Aragon and Spain need.

Thank you.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation