The Plenary of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has approved this Wednesday, in an extraordinary session, an agreement to guarantee compliance with the Program of Specific Options for Remoteness and Insularity (POSEI).
Thus, the first Institution of the island urges both the Government of Spain and the European Commission to fulfill their legal and budgetary responsibilities towards the primary sector of the Canary Islands, which is key to the economic and territorial sustainability of the Archipelago.
The agreement, debated and supported by the majority of the plenary, demands the Government of the State to comply with article 24.2 of Law 19/1994, which regulates the Economic and Fiscal Regime of the Canary Islands (REF). Specifically, it is demanded that the General State Budgets annually include a sufficient economic allocation that fully covers the national contribution to POSEI, as established by current legislation.
Currently, this burden is being partially assumed by the Government of the Canary Islands (about 5.19 million euros in 2022 and 8'57 million in 2023, for example), which reduces the resources available for the agricultural and livestock sector of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
“From Lanzarote we defend a state and European policy that understands our singularities and finances them adequately. We cannot allow the Canarian institutions to assume alone a responsibility that also corresponds to the State and Europe”, declared Councilor Samuel Martín, who today held the vice presidency of the plenary, after the approval of the agreement.
Likewise, the Cabildo requests the European Commission to update the financial sheet of POSEI for the period after 2027. The explanatory memorandum of the agreement warns that production costs in the Canary Islands have increased by 50% since 2007, while European financing has remained stagnant.
This lack of updating compromises the competitiveness of local producers and puts at risk the fulfillment of the program's objectives.
On the other hand, the agreement also addresses the situation of the fishing sector, proposing that the POSEICAN-Fishing program, currently linked to the FEMPA (European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund), be equated to the support model of the agricultural POSEI, with a structure of two pillars: direct aid and sustainable development.
This uniformity would guarantee coherence with the European regulatory framework and would reinforce the economic sustainability of the fishing sector in the Canary Islands and in the rest of the outermost regions.
