Canary Islands demands from the State economic compensations or authorization to be able to incur debt in order to finance its own social shield given the war in Iran.
This was indicated by President Fernando Clavijo after the meeting with the representatives of the business and trade union organizations of the archipelago where the package of 20 measures the autonomous Government has designed to mitigate the effects of the increase in fuel prices.
At the end of the meeting of the President's Advisory Council, both Fernando Clavijo and vice-president Manuel Domínguez denounced that the 80 actions approved by the Council of Ministers last Friday “forget” the Canary Islands, with which of the 5,000 million euros that the Government of Pedro Sánchez allocates to these measures “very little will reach” the businesses and citizens of the archipelago due to its specific tax regime. However, the Canary Islands “will pay” for this decrease in collection which will reduce the revenues of the autonomous financing system.
Clavijo and Domínguez explained that the decree approved by the State establishes a series of measures of a generalist nature “of which only some, very few benefit the Canary Islands,” as they do not adjust to the differentiated reality of the archipelago. “We want that whole package of measures that comes to protect the Spanish population to be able to be deployed with equal magnitude in the Canary Islands and that our population is as protected as the citizens who live in the peninsular territory,” they indicated.
To achieve this, with the backing of business and trade union organizations, the Government of the Canary Islands demands from Pedro Sánchez's Executive financial support through one of these two channels: direct economic compensations or flexibilization of fiscal rules so that the autonomous community can incur debt to finance the social shield in the face of the effects of the war without subtracting resources from other essential services.
“We are not going to allow under any concept that Canarian families are on a level of inequality and lack of protection compared to families from the peninsular territory,” indicated President Clavijo after thanking the representatives of business and trade union organizations for having joined “to row all united so that by one way or another it is allowed that we can deploy measures that protect Canarian families and businesses.”
Among the 20 measures that the Government of the Canary Islands plans to activate, the president and vice-president of the Government highlighted the use of the Special Supply Regime (REA) to lower the cost of certain products, the zero IGIC on products in the shopping basket, the refund of 99% of the fuel tax to transporters, measures to help the primary sector, and others such as energy vouchers and aid to the most vulnerable families.
The work developed by the technical and legal services of the autonomous community guarantees that the measures that the Government of the Canary Islands will implement do not enter into direct conflict with those approved by the Council of Ministers last Friday, since for the most part are based on VAT reductions that have no effect on the archipelago.
Without specific actions for Canary Islands in the state plan
Regarding the measures adopted by decree by the State, the president regretted that the Government of Spain had ignored the demands of the Canary Islands and had not included specific actions for the archipelago. He considered it unfair that the 80 measures implemented by Madrid were only for the continental territory, without addressing the special impact that the rise in fuel prices has on the islands due to their remoteness and insularity.
In addition, Vice President Manuel Domínguez informed the members of the Advisory Council about the measures that the Government has adopted to supervise the rise in fuel prices in the Canary Islands and monitor to prevent abusive increases. The Government has commissioned a study to analyze the market and check for possible abusive practices, in addition to carrying out daily monitoring of price evolution. Neither sanctions nor the intervention of the competition body are ruled out, with the aim of protecting consumers and curbing unjustified increases.
Along with Clavijo and Domínguez, have participated in the meeting on behalf of the Government the Minister of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Childhood and Family, Candelaria Delgado; the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez, the Deputy Minister of the Presidency, Alfonso Cabello; the Deputy Minister of Finance, Gabriel Mejías; and the Deputy Minister of Economy, Gustavo González.
On behalf of the main business and trade union organizations have been the president and the general secretary of CEOE of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Pedro Alfonso Martín and Elena Vela Sánchez; the president and the executive vice-president of CCE of Las Palmas, Pedro Ortega and José Cristóbal García; the secretary and the deputy secretary of UGT Canarias, Manuel Navarro and Héctor Pérez; and the general sectarian and the head of Institutional Policy of CC OO, María Frahija Betancor and José Ramón Barroso.
