Castilla-La Mancha allocates 650,000 euros to Tetra terminals for local civil protection

The Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha publishes this November 3, 2026, Decree 64/2026, of October 27, which regulates the direct and early granting of grants in kind to provide Tetra communication terminals to local entities that have civil protection volunteer groups. The regulation, promoted by the Regional Ministry of Finance, Public Administrations and Digital Transformation, mobilizes 650,000 euros co-financed at 85% by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and opens a period of fifteen business days to submit applications.

The decree was approved by the Governing Council at its meeting on October 27, 2026, and bears the signature of President Emiliano García-Page Sánchez and Minister Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina. The regulation is based on the exceptional direct grant provided for in Article 22.2.c) of the General Subsidies Law 38/2003, of November 17, and in Article 75.2.c) of the consolidated text of the Treasury Law of Castilla-La Mancha. The regional Executive justifies the exception on the grounds that there are no concurrent projects to compare: the Administration defines in advance both the recipient entities and the allocation for each, based on data from its own records.

The text is based on the experience of recent emergencies, including the severe floods in Letur and Mira on October 29, 2024, and the widespread power outage on April 28, 2025, which demonstrated that commercial telecommunications networks can fail due to infrastructure damage or supply cuts.

Requirements and number of terminals

Local entities of Castilla-La Mancha that, upon the entry into force of the decree, meet two conditions may be beneficiaries:

• Have a civil protection volunteer group registered in the Registry of Civil Protection Groups and Volunteers of Castilla-La Mancha.
• Maintain current accreditation of that group as a civil protection volunteering entity.

The number of terminals is set objectively and automatically according to the data from the Registry of Local Police of Castilla-La Mancha:

• Two terminals for each entity without Local Police personnel, with a maximum estimated amount of 2,000 euros.
• Three terminals for each entity with at least one personnel member in active service, with a maximum estimated amount of 3,000 euros.

The calculation is based on a maximum value of 1,000 euros per terminal, taxes included, and will be adjusted downwards if the price of the supply contract is lower. The distribution is indicative: one device for the Mayor’s Office or the designated municipal service, another for the group and, when there are three, the third for the Local Police.

European financing and joint deployment

The allocated budget line is 15090000G/221A/7618D, PEP JCCM/0000027332, fund FPA000090010, from the General Budgets of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha for 2027, under advance processing, meaning the grant is subject to the existence of sufficient credit. With this amount, the acquisition of up to a maximum of 650 terminals is planned.

The operation is part of the Castilla-La Mancha ERDF Program 2021-2027, within political objective 2, priority P2A “Green Transition,” specific objective 2.4 for climate change adaptation and disaster risk prevention, and action type CM2A404 “Aid for civil protection personnel equipment.” The acquisition will be centralized by the Department, through a public contract, to ensure technically homogeneous equipment compatible with the Emergency Communications Network of Castilla-La Mancha.

Fifteen business days and sixty months of commitment

Applications must be submitted electronically via the form on the Junta’s electronic headquarters (www.jccm.es), addressed to the General Directorate competent in matters of citizen protection. The deadline is fifteen business days from the day following the publication of the decree and its summary. The processing is the responsibility of the Public Security Service, and the maximum period to resolve and notify is two months from the closing of the deadline; administrative silence shall be deemed a rejection.

In exchange, the entities assume the cost of activation and periodic fees and must keep each terminal operational for sixty uninterrupted months, with activation in the month following its receipt. Non-compliance is reimbursed proportionally using the formula RI = P × (M/60), where P is the unit price and M is the months of non-compliance, with the possibility of recovering one hundred percent of the price if the equipment is not activated.

The call is processed in the National Grants Database with the identifier BDNS 939007 and is independent of the ordinary aid from Order 88/2023, of April 24, intended for material resources for the exclusive use of the groups.

The regulation reaches municipalities with accredited groups in a context of increasingly frequent emergencies and leaves the recurring cost of the service in local hands: the City Council receives the equipment but pays for its activation and monthly fee for five years. The deployment reinforces the regional emergency network with a channel independent of commercial networks, precisely the type of infrastructure that failed in episodes such as the blackout of April 2025.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, no. 210, November 3, 2026, section I (General Provisions), pp. 38902-38914 (official reference: 2026/7858).