Within the framework of the Council of the European Union on competitiveness held this Tuesday, the European Union approved the exemption for the Canary Islands from the kerosene tax.
The head of the Canary Islands Executive, Ángel Víctor Torres, has described the EU's decision not to apply the kerosene tax in the islands as a "great piece of news" for the economy and specifically for tourism, while defending the "coherence" of fighting climate change in the archipelago.
Ángel Víctor Torres made these remarks after attending a meeting with representatives of the third sector in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in his capacity as PSOE candidate for re-election as President of the Canary Islands.
Torres indicated that the Canary Islands are an island territory that can only be reached by plane or boat, and therefore "it has been made clear" to both the Spanish Government and the European Union (EU) that the archipelago should be exempt from the kerosene tax that Brussels wants to implement from January 2024.
The President recalled that this Tuesday, this measure was debated within the legislative package known as "Objective 55", which includes the kerosene tax in all Community regions, including the outermost regions.
After the assessments on this matter that both the Spanish Ministry of Finance and the Autonomous Government have transmitted to Brussels, the European Council agreed that the Canary Islands archipelago should be exempt from the aforementioned tax, which, Ángel Víctor Torres recalled, is the "highest, the one that most burdens the passage of a plane or a boat".
"This is very good for the Canary Islands' economy, for tourism, and for the economic sectors, and it also means working in coherence, because we defend the fight against climate change," the head of the Canary Islands Executive remarked.
