Good practice:

Mining Lands Castilla y León– Program of actions for unemployed, companies and entrepreneurs

May 2016, the Junta de Castilla y León signed the Plan for the Economic Revitalization of the Mining Municipalities 2016-2020 with CECALE, Foundations, Technological Centers, the CCOO and UGT unions, etc in the framework of the Forum for the future of the Coal Sector and the Mining Lands.
Objective - develop and promote the economic and employment activity in the mining lands (N of León+Palencia), in order to ultimately active the social – economic revitalization of these areas.
81 municipalities -considered very miners- of the coal lands, with high level of economic dependence persists with respect to coal mining, as a consequence of the marked productive specialization, prolonged in time.
The Program brings a set of measures, complementary to each other, in various areas. From ICE:
-Incentives for business activity and entrepreneurship: economical and technical support, especially for the development of alternative activities that contribute to diversify the economy of the area, to overcome the traditional monoculture of coal mining.
-SMEs Investment Projects
-Financing-Regional funding instruments
-R&D: Strategic Plans, Knowledge Transfer, ICT, M - ERANET, EEN Net etc
-Diagnostic and Action Plan. Mentoring for implementation
-Internationalization
-Free technical assistance to submit applications in International R&I Programs
-Forums, Seminars, Workshops
-Training: unemployed and private entities. Fields: management, marketing, ICT, energy efficiency reorient

Total budget:44,4 M€. Annual: 2016-12,1M€; 2017-11,3M€; 2018-11,0M€; 2019/2020-min5M€TBD
Human resources:+300 from Ministers of CyL, UGT, CCOO, Foundations, Technological Centers, etc.
How many people were hired to work in these initiatives? No easy to say – to many entities to know. ICE number:4

Thanks to the implementation of this Program, with ICE involvement we highlight:
3 Offices mining lands from March2017
Industrial tourism of Castilla y León-potential 2nd opportunity-Catalogues-identify+collect +select activities for tourism associated with mining
World12.70-Brewery in an old mine
ICAMCYL-mining and processing of raw materials sectors
Tile factory with R&D laboratory for advanced energy saving+recovery
FSB-R&D projects-improving production processes and ancillary activitie

Promote public and private initiatives for business and employment creation
Manage investment initiatives
Execute and design financial support measures
International promotion in order to attract investment
Regional development
R&D&I
Economic and financial strategies and reports

From some decades, coal mining has been an activity in crisis, affecting all of Europe, whose coal industries are suffering, to an increasing extent, the competition from cheaper coals form other countries outside the Europe.
The closure of coal mines affects several European countries.
The Program can be an example of inspiration for other regions that want to reactivate the zones, promoting actions such as those of the Program that is being carried out in Castilla y León, improving them.
It is also important to note that a Program like this, can be a good way to revitalize and look for alternatives in areas where mining activity is being abandoned, through the application of mining techniques and technologies in other sectors of activity.