The Diplomat
The Government will allocate 499,000 euros to subsidize welfare institutions that provide assistance to Spaniards in need abroad, mostly nursing homes run by religious personnel in Latin America.
According to the extract of the call for subsidies for the year 2023, signed last April 28 by the general director of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, Xavier Martí Martí (on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares), and published on April 4 by the Official State Gazette (BOE), the purpose of the subsidies is the granting of financial aid to welfare institutions domiciled abroad which, on their own initiative, provide free or semi-free aid to Spanish citizens abroad, in a state of need and lacking their own resources, in order to stimulate, compensate and complement the welfare activities of said institutions.
The economic aids granted to these entities will be destined to expenses for the social, sanitary or analogous assistance to these Spaniards and, exceptionally, to expenses of ordinary maintenance of the facilities that receive them, and of repair or replacement of essential elements for their assistance carried out during the year in which the subsidies are granted.
Entities that have been sentenced by a final judgment to the loss of the possibility of obtaining public subsidies or aid or for crimes of prevarication, bribery, embezzlement of public funds, influence peddling, fraud and illegal exactions or urban planning crimes will not be eligible for these subsidies. Those who have been declared insolvent in any proceeding, those who have been condemned (for any reason) not to subscribe Administration contracts, those who are not up to date in the fulfillment of their tax or Social Security obligations, those who have their tax residence in a country or territory classified by regulations as a tax haven or those who show rational indications of criminal wrongdoing, among other possible causes, will not be eligible either.
The maximum total amount will be 499,000 euros and the individual amount of each subsidy may not exceed 40,000 euros. Furthermore, the sum of the amounts of all grants awarded to welfare institutions operating in the same country may not exceed 250,000 euros. The amounts earmarked for these grants have remained constant since 2009, just before the outbreak of the financial crisis, when they exceeded one million euros. In general, the biggest beneficiaries tend to be nursing homes run by religious personnel in Latin America.
