The Generalitat Valenciana activates a Strategic Plan and 65 million for SEAT-Volkswagen

If yesterday SEAT-Volkswagen confirmed its plans with the gigafactory, this Thursday the Generalitat Valenciana will publish in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) the strategic territorial project (PTE) that speeds up its implementation.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 November 2022 Wednesday 21:33
6 Reads
The Generalitat Valenciana activates a Strategic Plan and 65 million for SEAT-Volkswagen

If yesterday SEAT-Volkswagen confirmed its plans with the gigafactory, this Thursday the Generalitat Valenciana will publish in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV) the strategic territorial project (PTE) that speeds up its implementation.

Not a day of margin for, as President Ximo Puig explained yesterday at a press conference, to advance in the negotiations around the battery factory that is to be built in Sagunt, according to the plans announced in May by the company Power CO, during the first quarter of 2023.

The declaration of PTE, a new instrument available to the Ministry of Territory, entails a series of advantages such as the direct sale of public land under the conditions of article 105 of the Law on Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Landscape (TRLOTUP), such as example license exemptions (the regulation of which corresponds to the Generalitat Valenciana); the exemption from urban charges; tax advantages and preferential regimes in terms of administrative processing.

For the Valencian Administration it is a priority to streamline the deadlines, because as Minister Rebeca Torró already pointed out in an interview with this newspaper, "if the regulations stop you, you have to continue modifying them to keep running and that is what we are doing".

Thus, after its publication today in the DOGV, the General Directorate of Territorial Policy and Landscape will submit the documentation to public consultation for a period of 20 working days and during this period a hearing will be given in the municipalities involved.

After collecting the relevant contributions and reports, the Department of Territory will issue a report on the adequacy of compatibility with the criteria and principles of the Territorial Strategy of the Valencian Community within a maximum period of 15 days. According to these deadlines, the first period would end after the December bridge and the second, already in January 2023. Almost in discount time.

On the other hand, yesterday President Ximo Puig explained that the regional aid that can be allocated to the plant will go "project by project" and that it will be "similar to what Ford has had in democratic times." He said that there will be "supplemental aid that will be complemented in a few days", an advance of the 46 million euros that are included in the budgets of the Generalitat, whose approval is expected at the end of the year.

In them, the Consell has budgeted more than 65 million euros to facilitate the installation of the battery plant in Parc Sagunt. This will go to the purchase of business land (5 million for the already announced Training Center), the development of infrastructures (12 million for electrical and water connections, adaptation of accesses or preparation of plots) and the implementation of training actions in the automotive industry aimed at promoting the arrival of the automobile group (3.8 million euros to the nominative line for the Power Holdco battery firm).

It also includes another 25 million euros for a Loan to Espacios Económicas Empresariales -manager of Parc Sagunt- to meet immediate liquidity needs, as well as another 20 million euros for the new treatment plant in Parc Sagunt II.