Urtasun's Cultural Rights Plan after a year and a half of work: aid to unions, more historical memory, and an unlikely change to the Contracts Law

In January 2024, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, announced in the Congress of Deputies the creation of the Directorate of Cultural Rights, headed by Jazmín Beirak since February of that year, to implement a Cultural Rights Plan . A year and a half later, that plan has become a reality. At least, on paper. Because the Ministry's goal is for its 146 measures to be fully operational by 2030, well beyond the end of the current term, when around 100 should be in place.

The PSOE and Sumar government agreement already included a commitment to promote a Cultural Rights Law, which, given the government's parliamentary weakness, has not been proposed. Hence, the Ministry of Culture has launched a plan, most of whose measures do not require Congressional approval. This plan transfers many of Sumar's political postulates to the field of culture: an increase in subsidies and discounts for vulnerable groups, cultural associations and unions, and projects with a special social impact; the application of gender measures in public policies; and the deepening of Democratic Memory policies.

The Cultural Rights Plan, as Jazmin Beirak explained in a press conference prior to its presentation, has a budget of €79 million, of which €46 million are new investments despite the fact that the General State Budget has been extended for two years. "80% of that budget is already included in 2025," the director general stated about a plan whose measures have already been presented in recent months: the Equality Plan and the film school program.

Among the new measures, the cultural rights plan includes an increase in discounts for cultural facilities under the Ministry (the 16 state museums, the theaters under the INAEM (National Institute of Statistics and Census), the National Library, and so on) to include people with a 25% disability, single-parent and single-mother families, and people with special needs. "The idea is for it to have a contagion effect and for other administrations to be able to join," stated Beirak, who also detailed that there will be a cultural access plan for women in prison and a pilot project to provide film exhibition catalogs to rural municipalities.

The new strategy also includes €4.4 million in aid for projects with a special social impact, that is, those that go beyond the scope of culture and address social issues. Another €1 million grant, for which applications closed last June, is for cultural associations and unions . Taking advantage of the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the settlement of the Roma people in Spain, the cultural rights plan also includes the inclusion of Caló and Romani in the EU register of minority languages.

Among the political postulates defended by Sumar, which are also included in the plan, are measures in the area of ​​Democratic Memory, such as the return of assets seized during the Civil War; the launch of a historical archive on social movements; the recognition of artistic figures and movements that suffered repression during the Franco regime; the Equality Plan, presented last December, which included the application of gender clauses; the modification of public examination syllabuses to include a gender perspective; and courses on this subject for ministry employees; the development of the Artist Statute, whose timeframe has already been set by the Ministry of Culture for 2030 ; and the climate challenge through the postulates of the 2030 Agenda or with sustainability plans for both buildings and heritage.

However, the legislative framework, one of the main aspects of the plan, is a challenge for the Ministry. The Cultural Rights Law, included in the Government Agreement, will not be implemented this term. And, if there is a change in power in Moncloa, it is likely that it will never materialize. According to the Director General of Cultural Rights, Culture aims to have all the pre-processing procedures completed by 2026. With 2027 being the deadline for calling elections, this process would be left up for grabs in a future term.

And the same is true of another essential aspect of the strategy. The department headed by Ernest Urtasun intends to reform the Public Contracts Law to specifically adapt it to the cultural sectors. "This is one of the demands that the sector has made to us: the difficulty in accessing some of these contracts," Jazmín Beirak noted. The deadline set is also 2026, assuming that parliamentary support, which is scarce during this term, can be secured .

The Cultural Rights Plan, the first to be approved in a European country, has seen the participation of 300 cultural associations and experts. However, support from the autonomous communities has been quite limited. Only six regional administrations have submitted firm proposals, beyond the discussions at the Culture Sector Conference. These have been the Basque Country, Catalonia, Asturias, Aragon, Murcia, and the Canary Islands. The first three were governed by left-wing parties or investiture partners, and the other three were governed by the People's Party (PP).

During the presentation, held at the Reina Sofía Museum, Urtasun stated that this is a plan to "defend the diversity" of our country tooth and nail, "combat barriers" to accessing culture, and also "job insecurity." " This is an action plan, a plan to provide our country with cultural rights ," the minister emphasized, in contrast to those movements that "question the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment and democracy."