SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 6. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The national secretary general of the Canarian-PNC Coalition, Fernando Clavijo, has demanded “guarantees” from the Governments of the Canary Islands and Spain to exempt the Islands from the green tax that he will debate next September. Likewise, he has urged the Canarian Executive “to work” to avoid the application of a directive that in the case of the Archipelago will mean the “bankruptcy” of the economy and that would “distance” the Islands from the mainland.
Fernando Clavijo also demanded the working documents to exempt the Islands from the European green tax, after the Executive of Ángel Víctor Torres “confused” the processing of penalties for CO2 emissions that is being debated this week in Parliament European with the green rate that will be debated next September.
Clavijo pointed to the “incompetence, apathy, improvisation and recklessness” of a Government of the Canary Islands that “out of ignorance or political interest” is generating “false information” and warned of the “defenselessness” of Canarian interests in Brussels.
For the secretary general of the Canarian nationalists, “it is at least worrying that President Torres declares to the media that on the 6th an initiative will be discussed to exempt the Canary Islands from the application of the green tax thanks to an amendment by MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar when what he has presented is an amendment to the emissions directive, not to the green rate directive”.
“And it is worrying because that amendment refers to CO2 emission rights, which is being debated as of today in the plenary session of the European Parliament and that, effectively, there was a risk that the Canary Islands, which were already exempt, However, it has nothing to do with the green rate, so the danger of this fuel tax being applied in the Canary Islands, which would affect the price of flights with other countries and between islands from January 1, 2024 is still a reality,” warned Clavijo.
The nationalist leader pointed out that it is “as simple” as entering the website of the European Parliament and the agenda of the plenary session that takes place from today to June 9 to verify that what will be discussed is the reform of the Trade Regime of EU emission rights (EU ETS), which includes the review of the contribution of the aviation sector and the notification system to air operators (CORSIA). “That is to say, what will be voted on is the one known as ETD or emission rights for what is paid for what you emit of CO2. A tax from which the exemption for the Canary Islands had already been achieved, which now must continue to be defended,” he said. the senator.
Clavijo insisted on the “recklessness” of the Government of the Canary Islands and the State “with an issue that involves the future of this land and of all of us who live here.” At this point, he wondered “in whose hands are we so that they do not know how to differentiate between one issue and another and so that they do not even know the agenda of the issues that are debated within the EU and that directly affect the Islands “. In this regard, he added, “if they do not know when or what is being debated in Europe and how it affects the Canary Islands, we should all be alarmed.”
In the same way, the nationalist leader assured that he did not understand “why neither the Government of the Canary Islands nor the Government of Spain has worked, as France has done, so that an outermost region such as the Canary Islands, which has no other alternative means of transport to connect to the continent that is not the ship or the plane and that we depend on, not only our economy but what we eat and drink from what comes from abroad, has not been left out of the texts not only of the penalization for CO2 emissions that is now being applied to maritime traffic, but rather the green rate, agreed by the Environment Commission”.
Clavijo described as “unpresentable” that this matter has been reached without “the singularities of the Canary Islands having been defended neither by Spain nor by the regional Executive.” For this reason, he announced this Monday that tomorrow he will ask the state government about the work “if any” that it has carried out together with the Canarian government to defend the Islands in “two matters that, if applied, will generate a catastrophic impact in the Canarian economy”.
“Specifically, we Canarian nationalists want to know what official documents the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of Spain have taken with the European Union to leave the Canary Islands out as an outermost region, we want to know exactly what the different measures that are going to be articulated will be not only so that the Canary Islands continue to be exempt from the penalties for CO2 emissions,” he said.
In this regard, he warned that they will demand “guarantees so that in the next commission on economic affairs it is requested that the Canary Islands, as an outermost region, be left out of the green rate in all aspects and not only until 2030.”
The nationalist leader insisted that “the feeling of helplessness is enormous” and acknowledged that the nationalists have been warning the government for months. “We have told him, we have put it in documents and we have warned him, we have reached out to him, but this government either does not want to work or does not know how to do it or is capable of pitching in on key issues for the Canary Islands.”
In this context, Clavijo pointed out that during the pandemic mobility was reduced and the GDP of the Islands fell by practically 20% and warned that “if we continue to put restrictions on mobility, not only will ticket prices for all those who want to come and visit us and spend their holidays here, but it will also restrict the mobility of Canarians between the islands and our connectivity with the mainland”.