SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Canary Islands today closed the distribution of the 1,144 million euros of state origin that it had received to compensate the self-employed (natural persons) and companies (legal entities) for the loss of income linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The autonomous government has reported in a note that the distribution of that amount of public money has been achieved in record time, thus meeting the deadlines set by the Government of Spain to consolidate the distribution of its 1,144 million. The State allocated 11,000 million euros for this purpose among the autonomies.
The resolution granting public support for the lines that were pending, 2.2 (companies with between 11 and 49 employees) and 2.3 (with 50 or more), has already been signed and published by the Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment , through the General Directorate for Economic Promotion, which makes the Canary Islands the first autonomous community in the country to achieve the complete distribution of such state resources. The aid will reach the beneficiary companies in the coming days.
The Archipelago was also, for objective reasons of greater impact of the pandemic on its business fabric, something that the Spanish Government itself recognized (the estimated drop in regional GDP in 2020 is around 20%), the autonomous territory with the largest endowment of resources in absolute terms, with 1,144 million euros out of the 11,000 distributed throughout the country.
With the publication of this resolution granting aid to affected companies, the Canary Islands reached the objective that had been set since June 4 of this year (with the opening of the first application period from the 15th of that same month). a little less than six months, which was none other than to ensure that this volume of aid arrived as soon as possible and within the term to the self-employed and companies affected by the crisis due to COVID-19, a condition that was generally measured through of the loss of income greater than 30% of those obtained in the normal year of 2019.
In relation to this administrative process and its culmination, the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, appreciated the “excellent” work carried out by all the agents involved in the management of these direct support, from the Ministry of Economy and its public employees to the Chambers of Commerce with management agreements to develop this action and the beneficiaries themselves.
In turn, Torres described as “very relevant” the work of adapting these state funds to the Canarian reality, “something that the Ministry of Economic Affairs understood with such diligence.” This was manifested in several issues: that of opening the activities potentially receiving these public support in the case of the Canary Islands and in the possibility of increasing the absolute volume of resources that could be allocated per applicant company (up to five million euros), between other improvements.
With the resolution that the General Directorate of Economic Promotion publishes today on the granting of aid to applicants for lines 2.2 and 2.3, after having done the same with sections 1 (natural persons) and 2.1 (companies with 10 or fewer workers), this process is concluded.
Specifically, in the Canary Islands, 7,444 freelancers have benefited from this measure of public support for the liquidity of productive entities; 11,389 companies with between 1 and 10 workers; 1,148 productive entities with more than 10 and less than 50 employees, and 166 companies with workforces of 50 people or more. All these freelancers and companies add up to 20,147 beneficiaries, who are those who have entered or will soon have part of the 1,141 million euros distributed in the Canary Islands.
In the aforementioned Economic Promotion resolution, a reserve list is also created for companies with 50 or more workers. This is the one that is made up of the already complete requests of line 2.3 that have not been able to be attended to this moment in the terms and for the purposes established in article 63.3 of the development regulations of Law 38/2003, of November 17, approved by Royal Decree 887/2006, of July 21.