A “real blow.” This is how the self-employed people of Soria, Cuenca and Teruel described the elimination of the flat rate of 80 euros per month for self-employed workers, a rate that was decreed in 2023 as aid to this group because they are especially depopulated territories.
According to the Network of Sparsely Populated Areas of Southern Europe (SSPA), this aid to the self-employed in the three provinces stopped applying from January 1, so those who registered as of that date will no longer be eligible. have benefited from them.
Approved by the European Commission in April 2021, the central government began its application on January 1, 2023. Under it, the new self-employed enjoyed a reduced Social Security contribution of 80 euros per month for three years. more beneficial than the general model.
Given this situation, the SSPA Network urged the Government to recover this figure in the preparation of the following General State Budgets, as well as increase positive discrimination for these territories in line with the 20% of labor costs established by the European Commission. .
In support of their requests, they remember that the productive fabric of Soria, Teruel and Cuenca has in its 38,649 self-employed workers (data as of December 31, 2023) an “important engine” for the provincial economies. They represent, in fact, 20% of the total average affiliation of the three provinces and are the ones that contribute the most to maintaining the economic activity of rural areas, the most depopulated.
They have not been the only ones to express their displeasure. In this sense, the employers' associations CEOE Teruel and FOES, CEPYME Cuenca analyzed “very negatively” the decision of the Ministry of Social Security to stop applying these aid to the new self-employed.
For their part, the Chambers of Commerce of the three affected provinces urged the Executive to apply this flat rate again, and retroactively, and that it not be limited in time. For these institutions, it is "out of all logic" that a fundamental measure is approved to correct the basic disadvantage with which these territories and also their companies start and it is only in force for one year, at the expense of the new General Budgets of the State reserve a chapter for you.
From the political arena, it was the vice president of the Government of Aragon, Mar Vaquero, who asked the Executive of Pedro Sánchez and the Aragonese minister, Pilar Alegría, for explanations. “The suppression of the flat rate for the Teruel self-employed is a new grievance from the central government to the province,” said the popular, who demanded the “immediate” resolution of this “cut.”
Her party colleague and mayor of Teruel, Emma Buj, stated that “the argument that there is no General State Budget is not valid,” because when you want, you legislate by decree, and the Government of Pedro Sánchez is the one that most decrees he has signed,” he added.
Other regional formations such as the Aragonese Party or Teruel Exist were also critical of what happened. In the case of the citizen platform converted into a party, they have urged the creation of a law that regulates this aid and that it does not depend on the approval of each annual budget.
