The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, conveyed this Wednesday to the executive vice president of the European Commission and Commissioner for Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, the Canary Islands' demands in transport, energy, agriculture and housing.
After the meeting held in Brussels, Clavijo stressed the importance of the archipelago having direct interlocutors in the new European Executive and highlighted the collaboration offered by Ribera when taking into account the specific needs of the Canary Islands in all areas of its competence.
In the opinion of the head of the autonomous government, the extensive knowledge that the vice president of the European Commission has of the Canary Islands reality thanks to her time in the state Executive will facilitate this collaboration.
“It is important to have these communication channels open, so that our requests reach where decisions are made in the EU”, he stressed.
Increase POSEI aid
Fernando Clavijo took advantage of the working meeting with Teresa Ribera to convey the “need” for Ursula Von der Leyen's new team to take into account the specificities of the Canary Islands as an outermost region in all areas of the financial and legislative framework that will be approved during this legislature.
With this objective, the president informed the vice president of the European Commission of the request submitted by the Government of the Canary Islands to Brussels to update the POSEI financial sheet.
The objective is to increase the European aid received by farmers and ranchers in the archipelago as compensation for their remoteness and insularity.
He also alerted Ribera to the negative consequences that the agreement signed by the EU with Mercosur has on the primary sector of the islands.
Green transition for SMEs in the Canary Islands and Geothermal energy
Regarding European industrial policy, Clavijo demands that the rules of the new pact towards the clean transition of this sector take into account the small size of the Canary Islands industrial companies, so that the funds enabled by the European Commission are not concentrated in large continental companies.
The head of the Canary Islands Government also took advantage of the meeting with Teresa Ribera to defend the continuity of the exception that the archipelago has until 2030 in the application of green taxes to air and sea connections with the peninsula.
Clavijo also requested that this penalty not be applied to all ship traffic from the islands to the exterior, taking advantage of the review of the system scheduled for 2026.
Finally, the meeting served to review the situation of the archipelago's energy system, an issue known by Rivera given her time as head of this matter in the Spanish Government.
Clavijo has conveyed to the vice president the importance of the European Commission authorizing the specific aid that the State plans to promote the development of geothermal energy in the Canary Islands.
The president was accompanied at this meeting with the executive vice president of the European Commission and Commissioner for Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition by the vice minister Octavio Caraballo, the general director of European Affairs, Celia Alberto, and the director of the Canary Islands Office in Brussels, Cristina Domínguez.
