The Government already has clear how it will distribute the fund of up to 11,000 million euros announced a few weeks ago by the president, Pedro Sánchez, and that it will approve tomorrow in an extraordinary Council of Ministers.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance have already concluded the design of a plan based on three pillars: the mollar, of 7,000 million, will be direct aid for small businesses and the self-employed, to be distributed through the autonomous communities; another of 1 billion to recapitalize medium-sized companies; and another to restructure credits endorsed by the ICO that will manage the bank, up to 3,000 million, as government sources have explained to EL MUNDO.
The plan must be approved this Friday in the extraordinary council of ministers that was convened this week after the Executive failed to reach an agreement before the ordinary council of ministers last Tuesday. The last minute offer from United We Can, demanding at least 8,000 million in direct aid in the aid package, evidenced the different sensitivities that existed within the Executive.
Although the minister spokesperson attributed the delay in her presentation to “technical problems”, Vice President Nadia Calvià ± o even told her government partners that the design of this plan was not “an auction of quantities” and that a serious matter “is not resolved with a tweet.”
Internal tension
Economic Affairs and Finance have always gone hand in hand in this negotiation. Once it was clear that it was going to be built on three pillars, the big problem that they saw with the package announced by the president was not so much the distribution of the quantities, as doing it with legal guarantees. In other words, if the Government assumed the distribution of direct aid, in compensation for regional restrictions, the door could be opened to a barrage of claims against the Government itself.
But in reality there has also been a tense negotiation on the amounts of the plan in an internal key. Until yesterday, according to this newspaper, Calvià ±o saw enough a fund of 2,000 million; Moncloa, through Iván Redondo himself, defended at least 5,000 million and Podemos, through Nacho à ?? lvarez, was still committed to reaching 8,000 million, according to Executive sources.
Finally, the communities will be in charge of distributing said aid, although that does not mean that they are not conditioned. Tomorrow the Government will approve a fund of 7,000 million that it will distribute to the Autonomous Communities so that they can help SMEs and self-employed workers who can prove a collapse in their billing to alleviate their fixed costs.
The announcement that the Government was going to put on the table a package of 11,000 million to help companies weather the effects of the crisis caused by the coronavirus was greeted with enthusiasm by businessmen, who had been demanding an injection for months that it will guarantee your survival in the face of a crisis that is lasting longer than anticipated. However, the announcement by the Prime Minister generated tensions within the Government itself. Sánchez hastened the design of the package, on which Vice President Calvià ± o had been working for weeks and whose negotiations with the bank had not concluded.
Beyond the amount announced by the president, the 11,000 million, neither the vice president nor the minister spokesperson have been able to advance over two weeks how this aid plan was going to be distributed “to the balance sheets of the companies”, making employers fear that the package could end without containing the aforementioned direct aid.
Three funds
The detail agreed between Economic Affairs and Finance, which must pass this Friday by the Council of Ministers, contemplates the approval of three funds.
The first, and most important, of 7,000 million, which will serve to inject direct aid through the autonomous communities to small companies and the self-employed who can prove a drop in their billing as a result of the crisis caused by the coronavirus and its restrictive measures. It will be lost, but it can only be used to cover fixed expenses or to reduce debt with suppliers.
The second fund, up to 3,000 million, It will be managed directly by the bank and will serve to restructure the credits already granted through the Official Credit Institute (ICO). The Government wanted the banks to assume deductions, not only in the part guaranteed by the ICO (80%), to which the sector refused.
The third fund, of 1,000 million, It will be articulated through the public company Cofires and will serve to recapitalize medium-sized companies.
Small print
Reactions to the design of the aid package have not been long in coming. The president of the National Federation of Self-Employed Workers’ Associations (ATA) and vice president of the CEOE, Lorenzo Amor, indicated this Thursday that “the music sounds good”, but that we will have to wait and see “how the lyrics are.” .
“This is what we asked, that the majority of the 11,000 million plan be allocated to direct transfers, to compensate the self-employed who have been forced to close their businesses,” declared Amor.
“These aid can help to alleviate the losses that many self-employed people have suffered during this last year” and the important thing now, considers the president of ATA, is that “be expedited and transferred to the autonomous communities as soon as possible” because “we still have time to save many freelancers.”
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