The Government and the Canary Executive will sign next week an agreement for the creation of a bilateral body for monitoring and participation in the management of the eight airports on the islands, as announced this Thursday by the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres.
Since the beginning of the legislature, Fernando Clavijo's Executive (CC-PP) has been demanding compliance with one of the novelties introduced in 2018 by the last reform of the Statute of the Canary Islands: the right of this community to "participate in the planning and programming and management of ports and airports of general interest under the terms determined by state regulations".
That capacity is recognized for the Canary Islands, according to article 161.2 of its Statute of Autonomy, because the islands' airports are "part of essential networks for the connection of the territory as an outermost region".
In statements released by his Ministry, Torres announces that on October 29, the Canary Islands-State Bilateral Commission will meet to approve an agreement that develops that mandate.
According to the minister, a "bilateral, parity body, with four representatives from the Government of Spain and four from the Government of the Canary Islands" will be created, with legal support in "the peculiar archipelagic and outermost situation of the Canary Islands".
That parity body will also be responsible for monitoring the investments that the State makes in the airports of general interest in the Canary Islands through the DORA plans.
Ángel Víctor Torres considers that this will be a "very important step for the self-government of the Canary Islands", something that the central Executive also values, from the conviction that "more self-government does not mean less State, but quite the opposite".
For the Government of the Canary Islands, the creation of this bilateral body for participation in airports represents "the first time that a significant and real advance in self-government will be made in the context of the Canary autonomous community after the approval of our statute in 2018", stated its spokesperson, Alfonso Cabello.
"It is a historic agreement for the Canary Islands to improve the connectivity of the Canary Islands with the world", as "it will allow us to have a space where we can sit down on equal terms with the Government of the State to talk about what happens with our airports", he insisted.
In Cabello's opinion, "it is vital that the connectivity of the Canary Islands is guaranteed and that the autonomous community participates in decision-making.
With that body, "a dialogue space is generated where we are obliged to sit down and can talk about issues related to our airports. It will no longer be voluntary for the Government of the State or Aena to inform the Canary Islands, the island councils or different bodies", insisted the spokesperson for the Government of the Canary Islands.
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