SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 5 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, sent a letter this Wednesday to the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, to reiterate the need to extend the application of the 50% discount on bonds buses and tram of the Canary Islands to the year 2023.
“We are already talking with the Ministry, and logically we have communicated it in writing this morning, because we are convinced, as it is included in the budget project, it speaks in a general way, without specifying buses or trains, of the funds for transport in 2023, and, therefore, we are convinced that this measure will also benefit the Canary Islands and the 50% discount will be extended for next year,” he detailed in a note.
The counselor showed his certainty that this discount will be extended to next year after announcing the Ministry of Finance that the project of the General State Budgets (PGE) includes a generic item to extend to 2023 the discount payments that encourage the use of the land and rail public transport, an item that has not yet been finalized.
“What was announced yesterday is a preview of the budgets in which a general item appears, an item that does not specify funds for trains or buses,” said Sebastián Franquis.
Therefore, he continued, “we are convinced that this expansion that has been announced for trains on the Peninsula for next year will also be extended to buses and the tram in the Canary Islands, we must remember that we have signed a protocol this year, last August, where it is stated that, precisely because there are no trains in the Canary Islands, the subsidy is increased to 50%.
For this reason, he indicates, “because the protocol is signed until December 31, we are convinced that the protocol will be extended to the year 2023.”
PECULIARITIES OF TRANSPORT IN THE ISLANDS
The counselor stressed that articles eight and nine of the explanatory memorandum, signed by President Ángel Víctor Torres and Minister Raquel Sánchez, include the peculiarities of Canarian land transport, as claimed by the regional government, and that the differentiated treatment that the islands should receive.
In fact, he pointed out that the cited article eight says verbatim: “In this sense, the Canary Islands do not have rail services under state jurisdiction in its territory, so its citizens cannot benefit from this discount established for rail services provided on the Railway Network of General Interest of the State”.
Based on this premise, the rest of the articles of this Collaboration Protocol, especially article nine, recognize the imbalances that go hand in hand with the insularity and remoteness of the islands and recognize the right of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands to be compensated adequately with a view to the effective implementation of the principle of solidarity with the rest of the Spanish mainland, as set out in article 138.1 of the Constitution.
“Therefore, these disadvantages of insularity must be collected through State action in order to establish an adequate and fair inter-territorial economic balance”, collects article IX of the Protocol.
