SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 21. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Government of the Canary Islands has stressed that the remoteness and insularity are aggravating factors to be considered, especially given the extra costs that the current economic crisis is causing.
This has been made clear in the Conference this Monday between the Government of Spain and representatives of all the autonomous communities to analyze the measures that can be adopted in the face of the adverse international situation in the European Council on 24 and 25 and the subsequent Council of Ministers on the 29th.
On behalf of the Government of the Canary Islands, the president Ángel Víctor Torres participated in the telematic meeting; the Vice President and Minister of Finance, Budgets and European Affairs, Román Rodríguez; the Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, Elena Máñez, and the Deputy Minister of Finance, Planning and European Affairs, Fermín Delgado.
The Government of Spain was represented by the Vice Presidents Nadia Calviño and Yolanda Díaz, and by the Minister of Finance and Public Administration, María Jesús Montero. From the rest of the territories, councilors from all the autonomous communities took part, in addition to the presidents of Navarra, María Chivite, and of La Rioja, Concepción Andreu.
The Canarian representation at the Conference held today outlined three blocks of proposals that will be developed in a document to be sent to the Government of Spain: measures at a European and Spanish level, with a generic nature, and others specific to the Canary Islands.
In the first block and with a view to this week’s European Council, it supports the introduction of the necessary modifications in the price determination mechanisms of the electricity sector to allow the gas price to be decoupled from the price formation system or, alternatively, to establish maximum prices or caps on the daily cost of electricity; extend the suspension of fiscal rules to 2023; Promote a European debt pooling mechanism that allows special resources to be mobilized at European level to generate a humanitarian aid fund and another for the economic sectors; the creation of a temporary aid framework related to the current situation, with the aim of facilitating the granting of national and regional aid, and the configuration and mobilization of special funds to promote the energy transition in the European Union.
In the second, already before the Council of Ministers on the 29th, the Canary Islands propose an income pact that allows the costs of the current situation to be distributed among workers, companies and the Administration; a fund so that the autonomous communities can assume the increase in their costs for the goods and services it provides and the execution of works in progress or planned, and the modification of the Contract Law to make price revisions more flexible, a fund that would materialize in direct aid to sectors and companies especially affected by energy and electricity and raw materials, and aid to vulnerable consumers (by way of the social electricity bond), as well as the activation of a specific ICO guarantee line and the extension of the term lack of those granted by the covid.
MEASURES FOR THE CANARY ISLANDS
The block of specific measures for the Canary Islands put forward by the regional government includes transport, the primary sector and the electricity sector. With regard to transport, an extraordinary fund is claimed to cover the increased cost of air and sea transport for people and goods to and from the Canary Islands, given that the current compensation regime falls short in the face of price escalation. This solution will initially be applied to the increase in PGE items for 2022 and must also contain specific measures for non-capital islands.
Likewise, the modification of compensation for the transport of bananas is requested, replacing the concept “freight cost” with “transport cost”, and the incorporation of certain staple foods into these aids.
Regarding air transport, the Canary Islands request a reduction in airport taxes. For maritime transport, the revision of prices in the OSP Los Cristianos-Valverde maritime route and the maritime OSPs between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula, in addition to the temporary reduction in port tariffs, both in the Canarian ports and in those of the State.
In relation to road transport, the Canarian Government demands mechanisms that make transport fuels cheaper in general and support measures for regular public transport, including taxis.
In the field of maritime transport of goods, an extraordinary fund is proposed to increase the standard cost of agricultural and industrial goods included in royal decrees 552/2020 and 147/2019, and incorporate those that do not appear.
The measures exposed on the primary sector, meanwhile, are specified in the simplification of procedures for the support of animal production within the POSEI, to advance payments to farmers, and increase aid to the livestock sector with the additional POSEI with charge to State funds (article 24.2 of Law 19/1994, modifying the REF). This section also includes compliance with the modified Law 12/2013 on the food chain.
Within the block of specific measures for the Canary Islands, finally, the electricity sector appears, for which the modification of the state law is requested in those points in which the Canary Islands require differential treatment with respect to the continental one, an aspiration that is contemplated in the law itself. and in the Statute of Autonomy; Subsidies for the placement of solar panels in the domestic self-consumption regime charged to the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027; the design of auction systems to promote physical storage parks (batteries); the authorization of a framework for the purchase of non-physical green energy, taking advantage of the blockchain (these are contracts between renewable producers and large consumers), in addition to the extension of the power limit of 100 Kw, and distances, of Royal Decree 244/2019 for photovoltaic installations associated with shared self-consumption and even energy communities installed on roofs and anthropized floors.
