La Rioja creates the team that will certify asbestos pathologies

The Governing Council of La Rioja has approved Decree 27/2026, of November 3, which creates the Asbestos Victims Assessment Team (EVVA) of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja and regulates the procedure for issuing the certificate of pathologies derived from asbestos exposure. The regulation is published in the Official Gazette of La Rioja (BOR) number 214, of Thursday, November 5, 2026, with the official reference BOR-A-20261105-I–88, and enters into force the day following its publication. The certificate issued by this body is the prerequisite for the National Social Security Institute (INSS) to manage the economic compensations from the Compensation Fund for Asbestos Victims.

The state mandate that La Rioja had to fulfill

Law 21/2022, of October 19, created the fund as a mechanism for repairing health damages suffered by any person exposed to asbestos in their professional, domestic, or environmental sphere in Spain. Article 6.2 entrusts the diagnosis, assessment, qualification, and review of the disease, as well as the determination of its cause or death, to assessment teams that would be determined by regulation.

The development arrived with Royal Decree 483/2025, of June 17, whose article 6.1 orders the constitution of these teams within the health department of each autonomous community, with personnel specialized in public, occupational, and environmental health. Subsequently, the Plenary of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS), on November 12, 2025, approved the common procedure for issuing the certificate, which seeks to guarantee homogeneity of action throughout the territory.

Composition and functions of the body

The EVVA will depend on the General Directorate competent in Public Health matters and its function is to prepare the report that serves as the basis for the certificate provided for in Annex II of Royal Decree 483/2025. Its composition combines personnel from that general directorate and the Riojan Health Service:

• A president with Public Health Surveillance functions.
• A member with Occupational Health Surveillance functions.
• A member with Environmental Health functions.
• A member designated by the Riojan Health Service, a specialist in Pulmonology.
• A secretary from subgroups A1/A2, with voice and vote.
• Professionals of recognized qualification and experience may be consulted, with voice but without vote.

The team will assume the diagnosis and assessment of the disease, its qualification and review, and the determination of the cause or death of the affected persons.

How to request the certificate

Applications may be submitted through the electronic office of the Government of La Rioja or in person at the General Directorate of Public Health, Consumption and Care, of the Department of Health and Social Policies. They must be accompanied by the documentation required in Article 7 of Royal Decree 483/2025, including:

• Documentation proving representation, if acting through a representative.
• A copy of the final administrative or judicial resolution recognizing the pension derived from a professional contingency due to asbestos exposure.
• Informed consent to access medical records and necessary data.
• Medical reports or other documentation proving the pathologies listed in Annex II or their link to asbestos.

If the application does not meet the requirements, the interested party will be requested to rectify it within ten days; failure to do so will be considered a withdrawal. The period for issuing and notifying the resolution is three months from the date of registration, and if this period passes without an express resolution, the applications will be understood as approved by administrative silence. An administrative appeal (recurso de alzada) may be filed against the resolution before the hierarchical superior. The standardized form appears as an annex to the decree, with code CAP: 25787.00 and DIR: A17014413.

The decree was signed in Logroño on November 3, 2026, by the president, Gonzalo Capellán de Miguel, and the counselor of Health and Social Policies, María Martín Díez de Baldeón, following the opinion of the Consultative Council of La Rioja.

Impact for affected residents of La Rioja

The regulation unlocks in La Rioja the preliminary phase of accreditation of compensable pathologies, upon which effective access to compensation from the state fund depends. With its own body, a maximum period of three months, and positive silence as a guarantee, those affected by occupational, domestic, or environmental exposure in the community will for the first time have a regulated procedure and a specialized unit in public, occupational, and environmental health to assess their case.

Source: Official Gazette of La Rioja, no. 214, of November 5, 2026, section I. General Provisions, pp. 18790-18796 (official reference: BOR-A-20261105-I–88).