The council of ministers adopted on friday, 17 July, two new calls for public aid to promote smart cities with a budget of eur 78 million were rooted in the Plan of Intelligent Cities of the Digital Agenda in Spain.
These two types of aid are aimed at local, regional and autonomous communities, and give continuity to the ‘ I convening of Intelligent Cities ’ 2014. This is the ‘ II Convening of Intelligent Cities "and ‘ I Call for Intelligent Islands ’.
The ‘ II convening of Intelligent Cities ’ has a budget of eur 48 million and, unlike the first, may benefit from it local entities from more than 20,000 people from all over spain (municipalities, communities, councils and candidacies, can), as well as the autonomous communities uniprovinciales. The public entity Red.es Registrar financed to a maximum of 80 per cent of the actions covered by the various projects beneficiaries, who may not be higher than the eur 8 million budget.
The initiatives presented should drive and involve industry quantifiable savings and periods or efficiency gains in public services, improvements in accessibility, be innovative projects forming part of the powers of local entities and be exported, promoting interoperability between administrations, have potential for reuse or replication to other entities or create spaces with ICT technological environments interoperable, among others.
The first call could only be entities of the communities of andalusia and Extremadura Castilla-La Stain on the limitation of budgets of the european Regional development fund (ERDF). A total of 37 initiatives candidates, of which 14 were selected.
Intelligent islands
For its part, the programme ‘ Intelligent ’ Islands with a budget of eur 30 million, which can choose all local authorities to manage public services throughout the territory of any island of The Balearic Islands or the canary islands.
The aim is to fund initiatives that incorporate the strategy for smart island, will contribute to improving public services of the territory and are aimed at mitigating the negative effects of insularity, through the use of icts. The maximum budget at the initiative is eur 10 million and the funding will be 100 per cent by Red.es.
Taking stock of the national Plan of Intelligent Cities
The Smart cities is the ninth specific plan of the Digital Agenda in spain and was approved last march, with a budget of 153 million euros. The Ministry of industry, energy and tourism (MINETUR) announced on wednesday, during the act of constitution of Sectoral Forum Intelligent Cities, the increase of this amount to $188 million, with the objective of widening its proceedings and make them more route.
The Plan is a fundamental reform of the policies of encouragement and support the deployment of intelligent cities held so far and operates in four areas of focus: governance, aid to local entities and industry, internationalization and development of technical and legal regulations.
To set the stage of completion of the plan and future courses of action, the MINETUR has produced a report which takes stock of the actions covered by this report, 50 per cent of the plan is already under implementation, 46.2 per cent is in the process of preparatory work and 3.8 per cent has been completed.
Actions that are already being implemented included the development of a white paper on smart cities and cited calls for Intelligent Cities and islands intelligent Red.es. Also the convening EOI/Segittur for intelligent tourist destinations and the call of efficiency and sustainability of the institute for the diversification and Saving of energy (IDAE), among others. In addition, the Escuela de organización Industrial (EOI) has already completed a urban laboratory and a project of efficient management of water and energy.
Cofinancing from the european Regional development fund (ERDF)
The calls for assistance adopted by the council of ministers are susceptible of cofinancing is possible through the european Regional development fund (ERDF), whose purpose is to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the european Union and correct the imbalances between its regions.
