The plenary session of the Canary Islands Parliament approved this Wednesday, with the vote against of Vox, a motion urging the regional government to promote the recovery of island and municipal planning, and to promote limitations and taxes for non-residents to access protected natural spaces. At the same time, the parties that make up the Canary Islands Government have rejected the implementation of an ecotax and a tourist moratorium.
These two issues are part of a motion by the Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarias (NC-BC) group, which accepted amendments from the PSOE, and which is a consequence of an interpellation on measures to reorient the tourism model towards economic, social and environmental sustainability.
The approved text urges the regional government to promote the recovery of island and municipal planning, which avoids greater occupation of territory by tourism activity and orders land uses, facilitating land for residential housing at affordable prices.
It also calls for an increase in budgetary resources allocated to the correct execution of the Canary Islands housing plan as the best instrument to respond to the existing housing problem in the archipelago.
In addition, the Government of the Canary Islands is urged to promote, in collaboration with the island councils, quantitative limitations and fees to access protected natural spaces by non-residents in the Canary Islands, which serve to avoid the current overcrowding suffered by these spaces, and whose amount is used for the conservation and improvement of the same.
Rejected urban proposals
The motion included five other proposals, which have been rejected by the groups that support the regional government (CC, PP, ASG and AHI) and Vox, one of which was to urgently promote legislative measures of tourism and urban policy to limit tourism growth conditioned to island realities and the existence of public services.
Another rejected proposal expressed the "rejection of the call effect" generated by the Ministry of Tourism and Employment of the Canary Islands Government through the regulation of the rental of homes for tourist use, "causing an exponential increase in applications to carry out this activity".
Faced with this situation, the Government of the Canary Islands was urged to implement "an urgent moratorium" on authorizations for vacation homes by decree law until the vacation home bill is approved.
It has also been "rejected to establish, through a bill, a tourist ecotax" destined preferably to promote the improvement and rehabilitation of public infrastructures in tourist cities together with the preservation of natural spaces and resources and the maintenance of the agricultural landscape, as well as to contribute to the fulfillment of the environmental and social objectives of the Canary Islands Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030.
It has also been rejected to urge the regional government to prioritize and promote the processes of rehabilitation of tourist cities, the modernization and renovation of the accommodation plant, the diversification and qualification of the complementary offer, decarbonization and digitalization, the permanent training of personnel and the improvement of remuneration and working conditions in the sector, actively involving itself in collective bargaining processes.
Another rejected proposal was to urge that, on the road to social, economic and environmental sustainability of the islands, the circular economy be promoted as a strategy for progress that allows boosting economic growth, improving competitiveness and stimulating innovation, contributing to achieving a sustainable, decarbonized productive fabric that makes efficient use of resources.
And in the fifth rejected proposal, the Government of the Canary Islands was urged to study the legal possibilities of limiting the acquisition of homes by non-resident foreigners who use them for speculative purposes and raise prices for residents, under the protection of the specificities allowed by Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The deputy of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC) Luis Campos has defended the motion and has indicated that it is a "historic" moment, although not unique, to point out that in other stages the situation was resolved with "revolutionary" measures such as the guidelines and tourist moratoriums.
Luis Campos has pointed out that it is essential to start a debate to apply measures to limit tourism growth, taking into account each island reality, and has indicated that it is a priority to establish a tourist tax that, although it will not end mass tourism, will help recovery.
The deputy of the Socialist group Sebastián Franquis has recognized that the tourism model must be rethought, and has stressed that the demonstration last Saturday is a wake-up call to the regional Parliament, so he has stated that this citizen concern must be led.
Sebastián Franquis has asked the regional government for leadership because it is "its historical responsibility" to negotiate with all sectors to try to reach a great agreement to limit tourism growth, to distribute wealth and to bet on sustainability in a clear way.
The deputy of the Mixed Group, Raúl Acosta (AHI), has pointed out that these are problems that have not been solved, and has focused on promoting the recovery of island and municipal planning to avoid greater occupation of the territory by tourism activity.
Jesús Ramos, from Agrupación Socialista Gomera (ASG), has expressed his support for "debating an ecotax and rethinking among all the changes in the tourism model, although he has commented that it is contradictory to ask Europe for help and then prohibit European citizens from buying homes on the islands".
The deputy of Vox Paula Jover has stressed that tourism "is not responsible for the excesses of governments or the increase in housing prices, or traffic jams on the roads", and has asked to "pamper" the tourism sector by diversifying it "with common sense".
Carlos Ester, from the Popular group, considered that last Saturday's demonstration was a "total amendment" to the previous regional government, and added that "the tourist is not to blame for the situation, to then ask why these measures were not proposed in the previous legislature".
The deputy of the Nationalist group (CC) José Manuel Bermúdez has questioned the motion as an exercise of "opportunism" because those who have presented it have not done something previously, and has added that the three tourist moratoriums that have been applied in the Canary Islands have the "seal" of CC.
