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Vitoria-Gasteiz. Asier Vallejo, director for the Basque Communities Abroad, has sent word of a series of proposed modifications to the 2013 grants for Basque Centers, due to the economic crisis situation. The text of the communication has been published at www.euskaletxeak.net, in Basque, Spanish, English and French.

The English text reads as follows:

Vitoria - Gasteiz, February 20, 2013

Modification of calls for subsidies and dire need 2013

In a period of general economic crisis like the one existing today in the Basque Country, the Basque Government budget for 2013 will experience notable drop. This will certainly have a knock - on effect causing a reduction in aid to Basque centres. In order to ensure that the impact of these budgetary restrictions is as low as possible, I have proposed the following:

-1. Mantainance of the present terms of calls for aid in situations of dire need, given that this is a programme of a purely social nature which we understand must be given priority.

-2. Elimination of the 2013 call for the sum destined to Chapter 7 (infrastructures and installations), given that these investmen ts can be postponed until more favour able moments , thus placing priority on the fostering of activities. It goes without saying that the amount committed in 2012 for the second payment of the call in that year will be respected.

-3. Reduction the amount de stined to Chapter 4 (activities and operation) by around 20%, keeping in mind that the reduction would have been greater if Chapter 7 had not been eliminated. The final amount will be established once the budget ha s been approved in the Basque Parliament.

-4. Mantainence of the deadline for presenting applications for subsidies at February 28th, given the impossibility of extending the date. This means that the Basque centres which have already presented their applications can adapt their requests to the new b udgetary context after the deadline.

We appeal for the understanding and mutual support of Basque centres and ask them to reduce their expectations as regards this year’s subsidy by presenting applications for lower amounts in keeping with the reduction in budget.

Once the budget has been approved, which we expect to take place towards the end of April, we will issue a Resolution amending the call for subsidy applications in 2013 with the final amounts.

Asier Vallejo Itsaso
Director