The Basque Country allocates 1.2 million euros to municipal projects against addictions

The Governing Council has today given the green light to an order from the Department of Health that authorises aid amounting to 1,201,328.75 euros to finance, during 2026, municipal and community programmes aligned with the VIII Plan on Addictions in the Basque Country. The subsidies, managed by the Directorate of Public Health and Addictions, will cover up to 50% of the budget of each programme and are called on a competitive basis, with a period of 15 working days from their publication in the BOPV.

The Department of Health has modified the focus of previous calls to link them directly to the VIII Plan on Addictions, with the aim that city councils and local entities develop participatory actions that create healthier environments and reduce the supply of addictive substances through better coordination between agents, improve the application of regulations and reinforce prevention at all ages, define clear itineraries for people with addictions and work to reduce stigma, reinforce comprehensive care for problematic behaviors associated with gambling and the abusive use of technologies, support the training of professionals, the evaluation of programs and research on addictions, and strengthen networking between all the entities involved in their prevention and approach.

Local entities that manage, directly or in collaboration with specialized entities, structured programs for the approach and community prevention of addictions in their territory may be eligible for the aid. Each subsidy will finance up to 50% of the total budget of the program presented, without any local entity being able to receive more than 6% of the total credit allocated.

Applications will be submitted exclusively electronically, from the day following the publication of the order in the BOPV and for 15 working days thereafter. Once the aid has been accepted, a first payment of 80% will be paid on account of the 2026 budget, while the remaining 20% will be paid after the submission of the justification report, which must include the degree of compliance with the programme, a qualitative and quantitative assessment of its development, as well as information on other local activities in the field of addictions.

This call is aligned with the Basque Health Pact, by strengthening community action and intersectoral coordination in public health, responding to the strategic lines of the Euskadi 2030 Health Plan that promote collaborative community health strategies, the coordination of a network of public and private agents, and participatory health promotion processes. In this way, the grants seek to make municipalities key agents in the implementation of the Health Plan and the VIII Plan on Addictions, bringing prevention and care policies closer to the environments where citizens live.