The government of the Canary Islands and the councils of Gran Canaria and Tenerife are already negotiating with the central government the formula for “stable funding” by the State of two railway projects on the two capital islands, considering a possible bilateral agreement similar to the one in force for the Archipelago’s roads as one of the options. All parties agree, in any case, on the need to create some kind of “legal tool” so that the projects are recognized as being of “general interest” and have access to state resources in a scheduled manner over time, not depending on political situations to be included in successive general State budgets.
This was the main conclusion reached on Thursday by the representatives of the four administrations involved in the negotiations after the first technical meeting on the matter, following an initial political meeting on March 6 by the Minister of Transport of the Canary Islands Government, Pablo Rodríguez; the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente; and the presidents of the Gran Canaria and Tenerife councils, Antonio Morales and Rosa Dávila, respectively. In today’s meeting, the parties were represented by María Fernández as the Director General of Transport of the regional government; the Councillor for Sustainable Mobility of the Gran Canaria Council, Teodoro Sosa; the Councillor for Mobility of the Tenerife island council, Eulalia García (Tenerife); and the Director General of the Railway Sector at the Ministry, Carlos Juárez.
Fernández highlighted the fact that for the first time in history, a “technical committee” is being formed to study the “legal and financial framework” for the two railway projects of the two most populous islands, which require an investment of 4,000 million Euros (1,500 for Gran Canaria and 2,200 for Tenerife) and propose the connection of the airport areas of both islands with their respective capitals. “Until now, we have survived with specific annual allocations in the state budgets for the development of studies, but that is not sufficient for projects of this scale, and we need a stable financial plan,” Fernández summarized after the meeting, emphasizing that “all the proposals we have made will be considered, they will commission a socioeconomic impact study on both islands to support the future legal tool, whether through an agreement, a program contract, or another form”.
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This prior agreement to seek a legal solution implies, de facto, a substantial difference from what the Canary Government and the councils proposed in the aforementioned meeting with the minister on March 6. On that occasion, the island administrations suggested including the two projects in the national railway network as the best method to participate in state funding, meaning that they would be infrastructures of general interest that the State took on financially, while the councils maintained their management autonomy. However, this formula has been discarded because, as Fernández explained, “it would be like starting over with two projects that are already very advanced in their technical aspects, and furthermore, the specific requirements for integration into that national rail network of Adif (Administrator of Railway Infrastructure) would be impossible to meet”. “We have abandoned that route and have emphasized our own, and due to our status as an outermost region, we can have a railway network of general interest due to its economic and social impact, and its implications for sustainable mobility”.
In any case, the primary goal remains to secure safe, stable, and planned funding with agreements or program contracts between Canary Islands and the State looking four to five years ahead. “With the agreement in hand, we will prevent everything from being a year-to-year struggle in the state budgets,” emphasized the Director General of Transport of the regional government, that is, safeguarding State financial participation from political and economic situations and, therefore, regardless of the political color in the central government or the parliamentary majorities on which each of the state budgets have to depend. Additionally, to ensure that “stable funding,” the Canarian side aims to establish some form of legal anchoring in any of the state laws related to sustainable mobility.
“We have emphasized that this future agreement is not something temporary, but rather is anchored at a legislative level in the Sustainable Mobility Law or any other through a transitory provision to recognize this differential fact that Europe has already
“Does not recognise as an ultra-peripheral region,” explained Teodoro Sosa in this regard, who recalled that the council announced the start of expropriations last week, amounting to €16.6 million to be paid with the island corporation’s own resources. Along the same lines, Tenerife councillor Eulalia García stated: “We need to legally anchor that it is a railway network of general interest by appealing to our singularity as an ultra-peripheral region. This tool can guarantee us stable funding so we are not dependent annually on the budget law.”
Short Deadlines
One of the reasons why Gran Canaria needed state endorsement to access a €400 million community fund a few weeks ago was precisely because its railway project, like Tenerife’s, is not recognised to date as integrated into those of general interest to the State. The Council requested Ministry endorsement before the deadline to access this community funding closed, and now awaits Brussels’ response. The formula of the agreement and legal anchoring in some state standard would mean automatic recognition as infrastructure endorsed by the State, thus having the possibility to access European funds. “Europe does open its funds to possible funding if we find that state recognition tool,” explained Fernández.
The Ministry of Transport informed the Canary representatives that they will be tendering a socio-economic impact report before finalising the recognition formula of the projects and the funding method. This step, far from being perceived as delaying, was welcomed by Fernández, the Tenerife councillor, and the Gran Canaria councillor. “Each project has its own particularities, but we believe that with this commitment to conduct our own study on the socio-economic impact on each of the islands, it is a step forward for future funding,” Fernández stated. Furthermore, he assured that short deadlines are being considered in all these procedures and “we hope to have a legal solution before we can already discuss funding in the 2025 budgets.”
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