Por Redaccion 
- The Minister of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning demands that this positive discrimination towards rural areas also be applied to state taxes
- Suárez-Quiñones asserts that, despite the complexity of the demographic challenge, indicators show a recovery in recent years that has been maintained in the first quarter of 2025, where the population of the Community has grown by more than 1,500 inhabitants
May 27, 2025
Castilla y León |
Ministry of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning
The Minister of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, inaugurated today in Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, the II Congress of Demographic and Territorial Sustainability, where he highlighted the cross-cutting policies and actions of the Castilla y León government in favor of rural areas as tools to combat depopulation.
Among these initiatives, Suárez-Quiñones referred to the differentiated taxation for rural areas applied by the regional government, with specific tax incentives to support childbirth, housing, rural entrepreneurship, agricultural activity, and overall economic and social activity. In this context, he encouraged the government to join these measures in state tax management.
The Minister of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning also emphasized the safeguarding of public services in rural areas, with a law passed in the Courts last year, and with the investments allocated in the Community’s budgets for this purpose. In the latest approved budgets, €2.3 billion were allocated to nearly 700 projects that will impact demographic and territorial aspects.
This budgetary and management effort, as the Minister indicated, aims to provide essential public services with equality and quality to rural areas: healthcare, education, social services, housing, and now transportation, with total free travel on all regional bus lines announced yesterday by the President of the Junta.
In the field of promotion and incentivization, Suárez-Quiñones continued, numerous direct aids to commerce, bars, and establishments in small towns have been promoted, subsidies for the return of population and the development of small dynamizing projects in villages, with over 150 of these initiatives funded.
Background
The Castilla y León government has been working for years to combat depopulation. In fact, it was the first autonomous community to present in 2005 an autonomous strategy, followed a year later by the creation of the Permanent Observatory for the Study of Population Evolution in Castilla y León; in 2010, the Population Council of Castilla y León and, starting in 2015, the Demographic Policies Council; in addition to starting a dialogue process with social, political, and economic representatives in 2010.
In the institutional field, the Demographic Dynamization Council has been created as a participation and monitoring body for public policies. In the regulatory field, the Law 8/2024 to guarantee essential services stands out, as well as the inclusion in the regional budgets of a specific Annex reflecting the budgeted projects with an impact on the demographic challenge. Over €2 billion in projects with an impact on rural areas.
The strategic planning is based on a planning document developed by the government with the four public universities in the region, structured around four axes: multilevel governance, quality of life, connected entrepreneurship, and rural-urban synergies, which materialize in over 30 programs.
The congress
At the opening of the II Congress of Demographic and Territorial Sustainability, the Minister of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning was accompanied by the Mayor of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marcos Iglesias; the President of the Provincial Council of Salamanca, Francisco Javier Iglesias García; the Director General of Policies against Depopulation of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Ángeles Marín, and the Director General of Housing, Urban Planning, Architecture, and Demographic Challenge of the Ministry, María Pardo.
The opening session was led by the journalist Javier Pérez Andrés. Following him, the panel «Challenges and opportunities in the territory,» moderated by the Director General of Housing, Architecture, Land Planning, and Urbanism of the Junta de Castilla y León, María Pardo, will include the participation of Vanesa Mezquita Mezquita, Mayor of San Vitero; Noemi Rodriguez de Arriba, Mayor of Santos; Pablo Sánchez Gatón, Mayor of Rueda, and Víctor Arroyo, Mayor of Herrera de Valdecañas.
The Mayor of the town of Villangómez in Burgos, Gonzalo Ausin, will kick off the afternoon session with «Innovating is Growing,» followed by the panel «Strategies for quality of life,» moderated by Emilio Arroita, Director General of Local Administration of the Junta de Castilla y León, and composed of Florent Bannwarth, country lead at BlaBlaCar; Enrique Bravo, Librarian at the Public Municipal Library of Aguilar de Campoo, and Mª Engracia Pérez Palomero, President of CONCYL.
The designer Fely Campo will share her experience as a demonstration that one can cross borders with a good project from a rural environment. After her, Ángeles Armisén, President of the Regional Federation of Municipalities and Provinces of Castilla y León, will proceed with the acknowledgments.
The third panel of the day, «Education as a guarantee,» will feature the participation of Pedro Ruiz Aragoneses, CEO of Pago Carraovejas: Estíbaliz Gónzalez de la Serna, CEO of Medgón and President of the AEICE cluster, and José Julián Nieto, territorial director of Adecco Group. On this occasion, Alberto Guerra, Director General of the Family Business Foundation of Castilla y León, will serve as the moderator.
The presentation «Traditional employment» by Estanislao Luis Calabuig, from the University of León, will close this first day of the II edition of the Congress of Demographic and Territorial Sustainability of Castilla y León.
Second day
Various Local Action Groups will kick off the second day of the Congress of Demographic and Territorial Sustainability of Castilla y León, taking place on Wednesday, May 28. José Manuel Merino Gutiérrez, ACD Montaña Palentina; Juan Bautista Alonso, manager at Adriss local action group, and Fernando Castaño Camarero, manager at Sierra de la Demanda local action group, will present different projects currently being developed in rural environments of Castilla y León.
Following them, the panel «Strategic sectors in the territory» will feature the experiences of Melissa Comellas, owner, viticulturist, and oenologist of Bodega Dominio del Noveno; Marian Revuelta, manager of the Las Médulas Foundation, and Andrés Gómez, from the company Ganadero Zael. Manuel González, director of the Theater Fair of Ciudad Rodrigo, will moderate this session.
The second panel, «The future of rural employment,» moderated by Ángel Marinero, Secretary General of Environment, Housing, and Land Planning of the Junta de Castilla y León, will include the participation of Alfonso Jiménez, President of Cascajares; Carlos Diez, Forest Department of Kronospan; Javier Fraile, Technical Engineer of Lúpulos de León SAT, and Alfonso Criado, founder of ACM Resinas.
The third and final panel, «Technologies for depopulation,» moderated by Joaquín Alcalde, Director of Presura and Cives Mundi, will be led by Ignacio Ruiz Gallardón, Public Policy Manager at Amazon, and Juan Carlos Morán, Director of Public Sector at Telefónica.
The closing remarks will be delivered by Javier Ajenjo, founder of Sonorama Ribera, who will speak on the revitalization of rural areas through music.