The Secretary of State for Culture, Jose Maria Lassalle has presented the General Strategic Plan 2012-2015, which will be evaluated every year.
The Secretary of State for Culture, Jose Maria Lassalle, said during the Culture Committee of the Congress that his department is working on finding the "right formula" as regards the new Patronage Act so that the impact on the tax collection, both as regards the income and the corporate tax, "does not harm more." In his opinion, currently "the priority is to ensure income to the treasury of the country”.
Lassalle presented the General Strategic Plan 2012-2015, which collected more than 240 projects to be evaluated every year and which aims to articulate a state policy that guarantees the right of access to culture and contribute to vertebrate citizenship, fostering social cohesion.
The fourth point in this plan aims to encourage the participation and involvement of civil society in supporting and promoting culture, in order to "reduce all political tutelage may we all may be tempted to exercise and expand decisional freedom of creators and the public ", he indicated.
This section refers to the previously announced Patronage Act (for which Lassalle has not even indicated specific dates), that he thinks has "a decisive role" because "it adds value, permits to channel private initiatives, increases the effectiveness of resources to general activities and favors the institutionalization of the beneficiary entities in managing their resources. "
The Secretary of State for Culture has advocated the "public-private partnership" that, in his opinion, makes "more efficient cultural policy". This Act will offer tax measures and incentives to encourage private participation that fosters the activity of the creators.
“Attractive” tax deductibility
It will include "tax relief as attractive as possible." "It will contemplate the entities benefiting from patronage, types of gifts, donations and deductible contributions, tax status, public recognition of the status of patrons and the creation of the State Board of Patronage," he said.
It also aims to review the automatic nature of the special tax regime for non-profit organizations, to find a balance between foundations and patronage, and to improve the "efficiency" and "rationalization".
The Act is supplemented by other measures to encourage the role of civil society and the promotion of participation in cultural programming, the articulation of procedures that allow national museums and publicly owned directly manage resources from sponsorship; establishing fundraising plan and updating the forms of funding of Spanish films.
“Montoro rules culture”
The various parliamentary groups have requested more concrete information from Lassalle about the Strategic Plan and the new Law on Patronage or the modification of the Copyright Law.
Socialist MP Jose Andres Torres Mora said that "you get the feeling that it is the minister Montoro who governs Culture". "Every euro that you stop investing in culture impoverishes us" he said lamenting that the government "does not present studies or reports but raises the VAT." "He criticized the "lack of policy" of the Strategic Plan for Culture and asked “reliable research” on the efficiently of these actions.
Aitor Esteban Bravo Basque Group regretted that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport continues “shooting buckshot but without specifying their actions and duties." "Do not spend life making plans," he said.
To Chesús Yuste, of Izquierda Plural (“Plural Left”) "government has chosen to punish the cultural sector" and Toni Cantó (UPyD) called for the usage of the cultural possibilities that Spain has to create wealth. "But the industry needs help. It has suffered a recession, the demise of the subsidy system and a rise in VAT that has left it almost sunk. This leaves us in a rather complicated situation with our immediate environment," he said.