The Canary Islands Government will subsidize the withdrawal of old vehicles from the roads in an attempt to reduce the average age of the regional vehicle fleet, which exceeds 14 years, and thus reduce pollution, and foresees that a single resident pass will operate in the archipelago's land public transport.
This was announced this Monday by the regional Minister of Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez, at a conference organized by the newspapers 'La Provincia' and 'El Día', in which he confirmed that the one hundred percent bonus for bus travel will continue and that 60 million from European Union funds will be allocated to the decarbonization of the professional transport sector.
In his opinion, the renewal of the Canary Islands' vehicle fleet does not only involve incentivizing the purchase of electric vehicles, but also helping those who remove their old, most polluting car from the market.
Rodriguez doubts that the EU will approve the PSO Lanzarote-Madrid
In the field of air mobility, Rodríguez has advocated that the participation of the Canary Islands Administration in the planning and management of airports be determined by law, in addition to making the operation of the average price market transparent, which is capped in the inter-island area, where Public Service Obligations (PSO) operate, he recalled.
Pablo Rodríguez said that he "doubts" that the EU will accept the experimental PSO that has been committed to for the Lanzarote-Madrid route, which is already operated by three airlines, since these instruments are approved "to guarantee connectivity" where it cannot be ensured.
"I believe much more in competitiveness. If we have more companies operating between the Canary Islands and Madrid, for example, prices will fall," he said.
Regarding ports, the Minister has expressed his support for the entities that manage all the ports in the Canary Islands to coordinate and make joint policies and for these infrastructures to generate clean energy, while announcing his department's intention to "advance the extensions of all ports and marinas to guarantee more than 38 million euros of investment and bet on a sector in which the Islands must be leaders".
Pablo Rodríguez has also expressed his confidence that the "decaffeinated" decree by which the Spanish Government has transferred powers over coasts to the Canary Islands, which violates the Statute of Autonomy of this region, will be corrected by the Ministry of Territorial Policy headed by the Canarian Ángel Víctor Torres, so that this transfer "is effective".
