SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 18 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, held a meeting this Wednesday morning with the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, and with the General Secretary for the EU of the Government of Spain, María Dolores Lledó, and the Commissioner conveyed her support for inter-island transport (sea and air) to be exempt from the fuel tax and promised to work on that line.
“That is good news and a magnificent result of today’s meeting because it is just what the Canary Islands defends,” said the president in a note sent by his department after the meeting in the framework of the Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions that It is celebrated these days on the French island of Martinique.
Torres and Ferreira addressed the recently approved European Strategy for the ORs as the main issue, which has been adapted to the post-pandemic situation and which, after its review, recognizes the special vulnerability of the outermost regions in the face of crises such as the one caused by COVID and the need for Europe to offer a specific response to these territories.
The Canarian president especially valued the Commission’s continued support for the ORs demonstrated through its “explicit commitment” to continue addressing their specificities in European policies and legislation; his will to complement national and regional efforts and the reinforcement of dialogue, association and partnership between the Commission, the states and the ORs.
Torres, during the meeting, promised Ferreira that the Canary Islands, which will hold the presidency of the ORs from November 2022 –which will coincide with the Spanish Presidency of the European Council from July 2023–, will do everything possible as an interlocutor for the nine outermost regions to play “a decisive role in the development of the strategy and the new Europe that is beginning to be written”.
In addition, he assured that the islands will take advantage of all their potential to “be a spearhead in terms of renewable energy” -as is the case with offshore wind power- and that the Canary Islands intend to be “leader in Europe in the new policies related to the blue economy , digitization and sustainability of the tourism sector, in audiovisual productions or in astronomical observation”.
At the same time that Torres emphasized that the Canary Islands and the rest of the ORs can lead the decarbonization process in Europe with the implementation of renewable energies in their territories, he also called for a broader exemption for the ORs in the application of fees to fuel that the EU intends to apply, due to the special dependence of the outermost regions on connections with the outside world.
Although he considered it a “positive step” that the exception in the ORs be extended until 2030 on domestic flights, he considers that further progress is needed.
For this reason, he conveyed to Ferreira the conclusions of the RUP Conference held this Tuesday, where he once again insisted on the need to extend the exemption beyond 2030 and also apply it to maritime transport for flights with other European countries and flights between islands.
EU SOLIDARITY FUND FOR LA PALMA
Torres also thanked Ferreira for his sensitivity to the volcanic crisis on the island of La Palma and explained that at all times there has been institutional unity to deal with the consequences of the eruption.
In addition, he offered details about the activation of all the security devices that allowed there to be no personal injury and the rapid mobilization of resources by the administrations to guarantee a response to the housing emergency and to start the reconstruction process, even before that the eruption had ended.
Torres recalled that he met electronically with Elisa Ferreira on September 21, 2021 –two days after the start of the eruption–, that they have maintained contact throughout this time and thanked her predisposition and the advance from those solidarity funds. for La Palma.
The president also conveyed his interest in promoting the forecasts of the migration management strategy on the Atlantic route, especially with regard to the flow of unaccompanied minors –2,800 currently under guardianship in the Canary Islands–.
In this regard, he thanked his teams for proposing an open dialogue with the State, making visible the resources invested in the Canary Islands in this matter and encouraging them to continue with this participatory approach of “mandatory solidarity” in which Europe becomes co-responsible for people who arrive at its borders through the Canary Islands.
The president insisted that Europe should be more sensitive to the new European Pact on Asylum and Migration because “it is not fair that all migration is managed only by border territories”.
