Order TED/1171/2026 lowers to 6,000 euros the minimum investment for just transition aid in depopulation-challenge municipalities

The BOE of Friday 6 November 2026 publishes Order TED/1171/2026, of 28 October, signed by the third deputy prime minister and minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen Muñoz, amending the two regulatory-base orders for the Just Transition Fund aid for the 2022-2027 period: Order TED/1240/2022, of 14 December, for employment-generating business projects, and Order TED/1239/2022, of the same date, for small investment projects that generate or maintain employment. The order enters into force today, Saturday 7 November 2026, and its improvements will apply to the calls approved subsequently.

The preamble explains the reason: under both orders, the Institute for Just Transition has already launched two calls for each line (resolutions of the Secretary of State for Energy of 3 March 2023 and 6 June 2025 under TED/1240/2022, and of 13 March 2023 and 6 June 2025 under TED/1239/2022) and the practical application of those four calls has revealed problems now corrected with three improvements aimed at facilitating project execution and improving the Fund's absorption.

First improvement: de minimis raised to 300,000 euros

For the small-projects line (Order TED/1239/2022), the order adapts the bases to Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2831, of 13 December 2023, which repealed Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 and raised the maximum total de minimis aid a single undertaking may receive from a Member State in any three-year period to 300,000 euros. The new texts of that order expressly set that ceiling (or the one each call establishes according to the European Commission's criteria) regardless of the form of the aid, and recall that the regime is exempt from prior notification under article 108.3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The aid is also governed by Law 38/2003, the General Subsidies Law, its regulation, the rules of the National Subsidies Database and the procedure and legal regime laws.

Second improvement: 6,000 euros minimum investment and local commerce in villages

The most visible change for the small business owner is the lowering of the minimum eligible investment in Order TED/1239/2022. The general rule still requires 30,000 euros, with a maximum of 500,000 euros per project, but for projects located in depopulation-challenge municipalities the threshold drops to 6,000 euros. For these purposes, the order defines depopulation-challenge municipalities as those with a population of 5,000 inhabitants or fewer and those with between 5,000 and 20,000 inhabitants with a density below 100 inhabitants per square kilometre, provided the project is developed in population settlements (parishes, hamlets, villages or similar) of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.

The adjustment responds to a confirmed failure: the preamble acknowledges that the 30,000-euro requirement was "too high" for many small projects in municipalities of fewer than 500 inhabitants, and that in the last call, despite making bars, restaurants, retail shops, hairdressers and other services eligible, "no aid was granted to any project of this type". The new wording extends the eligibility of those activities (the ones that retain population) to all depopulation-challenge municipalities, whose population is defined by the General Secretariat for the Demographic Challenge. For a village bar wanting to renew its kitchen or a hairdresser modernising its premises, the door that was previously closed is now open.

Third improvement: proportional revocations by component

The third improvement corrects a sanctioning rigidity. The aid consists of an investment component and an employment component, and until now a partial breach (for example, executing 80% of the planned investment) reduced the total aid by the same percentage. With the new wording, the reduction applies only to the corresponding component: partial maintenance of the investment reduces only the investment component by the percentage unfulfilled, and partial maintenance of employment reduces only the employment component; in the case of specially subsidised jobs, the reduction is calculated proportionally to the subsidy obtained. Total revocation remains, however, where the project fails to reach the minimum execution requirements or where the breach cases of the maintenance commitments provided for in article 28 of the orders concur.

The result, in the preamble's words, is "a greater survival of the aid" and a reduction in the amounts of revocations and refunds.

The complete mechanics of the per-component reduction

The new wording of article 30.2 of Order TED/1240/2022 illustrates the philosophy of the change well. Total revocation of the aid still occurs when the final execution of the project, by the maximum dates set, fails to meet the minimum requirements of articles 8.2 and 8.3, or the minimum requirement of 8.4. But if the investment is only partially executed (while exceeding the article 8.2 minimum) and the creation of the committed jobs is accredited, the consequence is no longer the proportional fall of the entire aid, but the reduction of the investment component by the percentage by which the executed investment has fallen short. And if what partially fails is employment, only the employment component is reduced by the percentage of non-compliance, calculated proportionally to the subsidy where specially subsidised jobs are concerned. The scheme is reproduced in article 30.3 for the maintenance phase and, with the same rules, in the parallel amendment of Order TED/1239/2022, so that both aid lines are aligned.

Two lines, one reform

It is worth not losing sight of the fact that the order amends two distinct programmes with a single logic. Order TED/1240/2022 covers employment-generating business projects (substantial business investments in just transition areas), while Order TED/1239/2022 is designed for small investment projects that generate or maintain employment, the natural channel for the self-employed and micro-enterprises. The de minimis, investment-threshold and proximity-activity eligibility improvements are introduced into the small-projects line (TED/1239/2022), while the proportional revocation by components (the new wording of article 30(2) and (3) and of the article 28 reduction) reaches both orders, so the beneficiary of either line will find the same partial non-compliance framework in the next call.

What the self-employed and advisers should review

For firms and advisers assisting small businesses in just transition areas (municipalities affected by plant closures and industrial reconversion), the practical keys are four: check whether the municipality fits the new depopulation-challenge definition; recalculate whether the project exceeds the new 6,000 or 30,000 euro thresholds; watch the accumulated de minimis limit of 300,000 euros over three years, which includes the company's other aid; and prepare the application for the next call, because the improvements do not apply retroactively to those already resolved, but to those approved from the entry into force.

It is also worth remembering that just transition areas are not an abstract concept, but the territories linked to the just transition agreements managed by the Institute for Just Transition, where industrial reconversion demands alternative economic fabric.

The working horizon is that of the Fund itself: the bases regulate the 2022-2027 period, so the next calls will foreseeably be the last to benefit from these improvements before the current framework concludes.

Frequently asked questions

From when do the changes of Order TED/1171/2026 apply?

The order entered into force on 7 November 2026 and its improvements apply to calls approved after that date.

What minimum investment does the aid now require?

30,000 euros as a general rule and 6,000 euros for projects in depopulation-challenge municipalities, with a maximum of 500,000 euros per project.

Which businesses can apply in small villages?

Bars, restaurants, retail shops, hairdressers and other services are eligible in depopulation-challenge municipalities, defined by population and density.

Sources

• Order TED/1171/2026, of 28 October (BOE-A-2026-23332)