The Provincial Council of Zamora proposes 42,396 euros to open shops in rural bars

The Provincial Council of Zamora has approved the provisional resolution proposal for grants intended to finance the enabling of a commercial space in bars open in towns within the province with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. The proposal, signed by president Javier Faúndez Domínguez on October 23, 2026, is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Zamora No. 127, dated October 28, 2026, serving as notification to the interested parties. The total proposed amount is 42,396.69 euros, which will be distributed among three applicants.

Three bars and three rural town halls

Three applications were admitted, all submitted on time via the electronic registry and accepted after correcting the required documentary defects. The proposal includes the score obtained and the amount assigned to each:

• Douglas Manuel Uzcareguri Rivas, file 6833/2026, bar in Porto de Sanabria: 50 points, requested 15,569.00 euros and is proposed 15,000.00 euros.
• Aniano Álvarez Rodríguez, file 7148/2026, bar in Benegiles: 35 points, requested 43,615.68 euros and is proposed 15,000.00 euros.
• Zandra Melisa Paredes Noa, file 7045/2026, bar in Escober de Tábara (Ferreruela de Tábara): 10 points, requested 12,396.69 euros and is proposed the full amount.

The evaluation commission met on October 15, 2026, between 12:00 and 12:49 hours, and applied the criteria of the ninth clause. The primary criterion is the population of the municipality where the establishment is located: up to 300 inhabitants, 25 points; from 301 to 500, 15 points; from 501 to 1,000, 5 points. The second criterion assesses the commitment to weekly opening beyond the minimum of five days: opening every day of the week adds 25 points, and six days adds 10 points. There were no ties, so it was not necessary to apply the tie-break based on the date and time of the registry entry.

Cap of 15,000 euros per beneficiary

The proposal applies the maximum limit per beneficiary set in the third clause of the call, which is 15,000 euros. Therefore, the two highest-amount applications—that of Benegiles, which requested 43,615.68 euros, and that of Porto de Sanabria, which requested 15,569 euros—are capped at that limit, while that of Escober de Tábara receives its full request as it does not exceed it.

The credit reserved for the call is 50,000 euros, charged to the budget application 80 43330 77001 (operation No. 220260000172), meaning 7,603.31 euros remain uncommitted. The proposal does not constitute a disbursement of expenditure, which will be carried out with the granting resolution and following auditing by the intervention department.

Requirements: five days of opening for three years

Applicants proved they were up to date with tax obligations and Social Security, registration under group 56 of the census of economic activities, micro-enterprise status, the effective opening of the establishment, and the absence of any other basic food retail business in the town. They also submitted a responsible declaration stating they were not subject to the prohibitions of Article 13.2 of the General Subsidies Law 38/2003, and a commitment to keep the bar open at least five days a week for a minimum of three years.

The call for applications was approved by Presidential Decree No. 2026-3886, dated June 22, 2026, and published in the Official Provincial Gazette No. 75, dated June 26, 2026, under file No. 753/2026 and communicated to the National Subsidies Database (BDNS No. 915016). The application period ended on July 27, 2026. The funding line stems from the 2026 Strategic Subsidies Plan, approved by the plenary session on December 12, 2025, and published in the BOP No. 6, dated January 14, 2026, and addresses the objectives of economic revitalization, fighting depopulation, and maintaining basic services in rural areas.

Allegations and next step

Interested parties have ten business days from the day following publication to submit allegations. Once these have been examined, the final proposal will be formulated, which will be notified to the proposed beneficiaries so they may accept and, if applicable, reformulate their application. The provisional proposal does not create any rights until the granting resolution is issued and notified, and no appeal may be filed against it, although any deemed appropriate may be alleged in the final resolution.

The call turns bars in the smallest villages into the last point of sale for basic products and, therefore, into an essential service for stabilizing the population. The distribution, however, leaves a margin of 7,603.31 euros unassigned and limits the aspirations of the two most ambitious projects to 15,000 euros.

Source: Official Provincial Gazette of Zamora, No. 127, dated October 28, 2026, section III. Local Administration, pp. 15-21 (official reference: r-202602488).