SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 30. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The spokesman for the Government of the Canary Islands, Julio Pérez, has defended this Thursday that in the open negotiation between Spain and Morocco to delimit the waters, it is necessary to work with “care, delicacy and discretion” to try to reach agreements.
In a press conference to give an account of the agreements of the Governing Council, he defended the “influence” of the Canary Islands, even though it was not present at the first meeting and was present at the interministerial one where the bases of the negotiation were laid by Spain.
“It was a very initial meeting – for the Spanish delegation there were only two general directors – and we understood that physical presence was not necessary, but we had continuous conversations by phone and messaging for several hours”, he pointed out.
Pérez has indicated that “a deliberation cannot be broadcast live” because “it can jeopardize any progress” that may be made, stressing that “it is not prudent to divulge” neither one’s own positions nor that of the other party, “it is common sense “.
The spokesman has especially highlighted the interest of both countries in “reaching an agreement”, unlike what happened 15 years ago when there were almost a dozen meetings – the Canary Islands only attended one – until the group “stopped meeting, has been without activity and with communication difficulties”.
He has insisted that for now the contacts are “preliminary” and the Canary Islands have been present where he thinks they should be, and the basic objective has been to set the agenda of topics to be discussed and the working methodology without even having a calendar finalized of meetings.
“The important thing is not the photo or the physical presence but the influence because one can go and be silent,” he insisted, stressing that the objective is to provide himself with “good arguments”, for which he has resorted to the Parliament’s lawyer and professor of Constitutional Law, José Miguel Ruano, a great connoisseur of the new Statute of Autonomy.
Ruano –ex-CC spokesperson in Parliament– is part of the working group to support Pérez himself, together with Judge Ángel Lorente, the head of the Litoral service of the autonomous community, the head of Legal Services, Isabel Cubas, the Professor of the Ulpgc, José Mangas, and the Technical General Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Security, Adela Altamirano.
OBTAIN SOLID “ARGUMENTS” TO NEGOTIATE
What it is about, the spokesman pointed out, is to obtain legal, geological, historical and administrative “arguments” to support the position of the Canary Islands and that their powers are also taken into account through the Statute of Autonomy.
Along these lines, he has insisted that “we must move from a de facto situation” to another “legally stable and solid” in which rights are known and respected, even though neither of the two countries has invaded the waters of the other.
He has also pointed out that although foreign policy belongs to the central government of the Canary Islands, “it has powers and wants to make them effective” to obtain the rights to use the subsoil that international legislation allows, always bearing in mind the desire to have “peaceful neighborly relations and respectful.”
Now, he has pointed out, it is about determining the baselines and the median, whether it is by equidistance or by equity, a concept that is increasingly supported by international courts.
Once this issue is closed, others such as transport management, fishing or environmental issues can be addressed.
