The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, demanded this Sunday, during his speech at the XXVI Conference of Presidents hosted by the island of La Palma, and in subsequent statements to the press, that the Spanish communities commit to a co-responsible management of the migrant minors who arrive on the Canary coasts. Torres also demanded that the EU accelerate the approval of the Asylum and Migration Pact so that the weight of the migratory phenomenon does not fall only on border countries and regions, but is faced with balance, justice and from a true solidarity between the member states.
Torres believes that the successful reaction that the EU is having to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some 3 million Ukrainians who have arrived in the Union as refugees, should also be extended to the rest of the migrants who access Europe from various countries and continents, as happens between the Canary Islands and Africa. As he stressed, and although he appreciates the support of some Spanish regions in the management of migrant minors, the Islands have been assuming an average of 3,000 boys and girls for two years (now, precisely 2,804), which represents about 1,500 per million inhabitants in the Archipelago, figures that clearly contrast with the 208 minors hosted in the rest of the State who arrived in the Canary Islands. "We host 40 times more the number of minors that would correspond to us. If there was a co-responsible distribution, that figure would drop to 60," he explained.
In this sense, the president appreciates the support of Pedro Sánchez for this co-responsibility, "as he clearly expressed in his initial speech today," and also highlights what was said by the presidents of the Valencian Community, Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, who support this solidarity management between the different regions.
Although he reiterated that the Canary Islands offers to receive Ukrainian refugees, Torres considers this co-responsibility with the Islands essential with respect to these other migrants who risk and often lose their lives at sea in cayucos and pateras, as they also flee from unjust wars, totalitarian systems, political persecutions, hunger or growing phenomena, such as climate change and global warming. "Just as we react to the Ukrainian diaspora, we must do so to the African diaspora," he remarked in his speech, recalling that, between 2020 and 2021, the Canary Islands has received 50,000 Africans.
In this sense, he also demanded legislation that addresses migration more adequately and better human and technical means to determine the exact age of minors (since not all of them are and it is necessary to prove it with bone tests), while recalling that, although the state budget for 2022 includes for the first time 50 million for migration in the Canary Islands, a measure that he appreciates and applauds, the expenditure in 2021 amounted to 70 million, so a greater effort is needed. He also proposes that there be an immediate redistribution among the rest of the regions of the minors who, as is happening now with the Ukrainians, allege war reasons, currently about 300.
Support for La Palma and extension of the example of unity in the face of the volcano
As he did in other appearances on the occasion of this Conference, Torres thanked La Palma for being chosen for this event and insisted on the need for the different governments to put aside partisanship and support the central Executive in the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in solidarity with the refugees and in the measures to be adopted to alleviate the consequences as much as possible. "In times of war, it is not appropriate for the opposition to be against the Government and vice versa," he told the media. In this line, the so-called "Declaration of La Palma" was approved in search of that unity and Economy and Finance teams from all the communities will be formed to work on a national plan, with a sectoral one also on refugee and migration policy, which he considers "a great advance, a great step".
The President of the Canary Islands also thanked all the communities for their support to La Palma from the first moment due to the eruption. He also highlighted the fact that, after ten years, today is the first time that all the presidents are at the Conference and believes that this should also help in the search for unitary responses to challenges of the magnitude of the war, migration or recovery from the pandemic, for which he believes that the use of European funds is fundamental.
Torres believes that the best proof of the results of unity in La Palma is that 330 million have already arrived from the administrations and the solidarity of civil society, that a hundred provisional homes have been handed over, that almost 1,400 people have been hired or recovered (or are in the process of doing so) various key infrastructures.
The President of the Canary Islands believes that the example of unity in La Palma must be repeated among all the governments of Spain in the face of the problems that the war is already unleashing in raw materials, transport and prices. For this reason, he believes that attention should also be paid to the distance (condition of Outermost Region of the EU), insularity and other Canary Islands singularities when compensating for these effects. In his opinion, and although a tax cut that counteracts energy prices and certain materials may be a success, a general reduction would be a mistake because it would have the opposite effect, prices would rise and public revenues and difficulties in maintaining the Welfare State would be reduced.
Due to the special situation of the archipelagos, the Conference raised the possibility of a special compensation fund for the two island territories (Canary Islands and Balearic Islands) for the consequences of the war. In addition, Torres recalled that the sixth wave of COVID prevented one million tourists from arriving in the Canary Islands this winter, which means 1,100 million euros less in revenue, so he demands aid to rebalance this through the state budget for 2022, in line with what was done in 2020 and 2021, with another COVID fund.
European funds, regional financing, Advisory Council and Reactiva Canarias Plan
Regarding European funds, Torres presented them as a success of the Spanish Government and asks that they be expedited as soon as possible, that they be spent in their entirety and that they be used to, for example, make the leap in energy and energy sovereignty that the Canary Islands, Spain and the EU need, as demonstrated by the current situation due to the war.
Before the press, Torres announced that, this Tuesday, there will be a second meeting of the Advisory Council to analyze the situation due to the war in Ukraine and, at its end, a follow-up table of the Reactiva Canarias Plan will be held for the same reason. Regarding future regional financing, whenever it is addressed, he demanded at the Conference that attention also be paid to the Canary Islands' singularities and its level of poverty, leaving out the resources of the Economic and Fiscal Regime of the Canary Islands. In addition, he asked that a unified criterion be established in the count of deaths from COVID.