The Provincial Council extends the deadline for depopulation grants by three months

The Governing Board of the Provincial Council of Lleida has extended by three months the deadline to resolve and notify the call for grants to local entities for actions to address the demographic challenge, line 1, 2026 annuity. The agreement, adopted unanimously in ordinary session 32/2026 on October 5, 2026, is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Lleida no. 202, of October 22, 2026 (reference BOP-2026_0_202_8813). The new maximum deadline ends on January 17, 2027, instead of October 17, 2026, as initially fixed.

The call was approved in session 07/2026 of the Governing Board on March 9, 2026. The summary was published in the BOP on March 18, 2026 and, according to article 13 of the bases, the application submission period—30 calendar days—ran from March 19 to April 17, 2026. Article 17 established six months to resolve and notify from the end of that period, which placed the deadline on October 17, 2026.

The extension is based on article 23 of Law 39/2015, which allows for a reasoned extension of the maximum deadline when the available personal and material resources have been exhausted and without exceeding the deadline established for the processing of the procedure. The agreement recognizes that these circumstances “have led to the exhaustion of the available personal and material resources” and that, at the time of issuance, the resolution had not yet been approved.

Three more months and a new time ceiling

The deadlines are as follows:

• Initial deadline to resolve and notify: October 17, 2026.
• Agreed extension: three months.
• Final date of the new deadline: January 17, 2027.
• Procedure: competitive bidding.
• Recipients: local entities of the counties of Lleida, i.e., city councils, county councils, and decentralized municipal entities that applied for line 1.

77 applications and a delayed evaluation

The delay is explained by the complexity of the call. 77 applications were submitted and the volume of work derived from the instruction and evaluation has conditioned the entire administrative calendar.

The Evaluation Commission was unable to meet until September 22, 2026, a few weeks before the initially planned expiration. With the resolution still pending, the Provincial Council opted to extend the deadline before it expired.

Publication in the BDNS, on the notice board, and on the Transparency Portal

The agreement must not only be published in the BOP: it must also be disseminated in the National Grants Database (BDNS) and on the notice board of the Provincial Council’s electronic headquarters, under the terms of Law 19/2014 on transparency. Furthermore, it is communicated to the Chief Clerk’s Office so that it appears on the Transparency Portal, in compliance with article 8.1.g of the same regulation, and is notified to the Intervention Service.

The invoked legal framework includes:

• Law 7/1985, regulating the bases of the local regime.
• Law 38/2003, general law on subsidies, and its regulation, approved by Royal Decree 887/2006.
• Decree 179/1995, approving the ROAS.
• General subsidy bases of the Provincial Council, approved by the Plenary in session 10/2024 on November 28, 2024 (BOP no. 58, of March 25, 2025).
• 2026 Budget Execution Bases.

No appeal may be filed against the agreement, as established in article 23.2 of Law 39/2015. The document is signed by the president of the corporation, Joan Talarn Gilabert, dated October 20, 2026. The extension had already been approved in the same session on October 5 and disseminated in the summary of agreements published in BOP no. 197, of October 15, 2026 (reference BOP-2026_0_197_8571).

A calendar that conditions 2027

For the city councils and county councils that have opted for this line of aid, the news has a double effect: they gain three months of breathing room, but the uncertainty regarding funding extends well into 2027. With 77 files on the table and the valuation closed since September, the resolution will predictably arrive in the first month of next year, a fact that forces local entities to plan actions against depopulation without yet knowing if they will have the subsidy.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Lleida, no. 202, October 22, 2026, Local Administration - Provincial Council of Lleida, pp. 1-3 (official reference: BOP-2026_0_202_8813).