Any industry that receives public aid in the form of subsidies or loans must maintain its productive activity during the following years. In the case of large companies there will be five and three for SMEs. The Government has approved this Monday the draft of the future industry law, a regulation that has not been updated for thirty years and that has the objective of shielding employment and modernizing the sector.
Industries that receive any type of aid line for their modernization or development may not, therefore, relocate or undertake an employment regulation file. They will therefore be obliged to maintain their production capacity. The objective, government sources explain, is to maintain activity and, especially, jobs at a time of reconversion of the sector. It is something that is already applied to the electro-intensive industry or that the Government imposed on Alcoa. With public aid, it will not be possible to make decisions that affect the national industrial fabric, ultimately.
The future industry law, commitment to Brussels and one of the last major projects of Reyes Maroto before leaving the council of ministers to be the PSOE candidate for Madrid City Council, regulates the so-called "industrial projects of general interest." They will be those that meet at least two of the following conditions: a significant volume of investment and permanent employment, projects within specific industrial ecosystems or that belong to sectors considered strategic by the National Security Council, or that are aligned with the industrial objectives of the EU and integrated into the European financing mechanisms.
Manufacturing industries and industrial activities aimed at obtaining, repairing, maintaining, transforming or reusing industrial products, packaging and packaging, the use of by-products and waste treatment are considered within the scope of application of the law. Also engineering, design, technological consulting and technical assistance services, as well as digitization activities, use and management of information, its interoperability and protection, which are related to industrial activity.
One of the industries that will enjoy special protection will be energy-intensive, which will have special "accompaniment" to facilitate its decarbonization, indicates the Government. Another objective of the standard is to promote internationalization, so that the programs dedicated to this mission will receive special attention. And there will also be a commitment to promoting industrial areas.
In terms of financing, the future industry law also establishes aid so that companies that have accessed national loan programs can refinance them.
The central government will also have a leading role in the case of industries that want to close or reduce their activity with a significant drop in employment. In this sense, the law will establish that formulas be explored for the prevention, correction or mitigation of the associated effects. For this, the different actors involved are given a period of time to seek a solution through a Reindustrialization Table where the General State Administration will intervene.
The industry law will also define strategic industries through the Strategic Reserve of National Industrial Production Capacities (RECAPI) with the declaration of projects of general interest. The financing agents include the Spanish Reserve Fund for Guarantees of Electro-intensive Entities (FERGEI) and the Fund to Support Productive Industrial Investment (FAIIP); and the executing agents will be the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), the National Innovation Company (ENISA), the Spanish Reguarantee Company (CERSA).
As regards sanctions for non-compliance with industrial law, the future standard toughens them, so that very serious ones may entail fines of up to 100 million euros.
