The Plenary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands unanimously approved this Wednesday a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) from the Socialist Parliamentary Group for the implementation by the Government of the Canary Islands of specific recovery plans for Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, in order to face the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.
The proposal, defended by the socialist deputy and president of the Lanzarote Island Council, María Dolores Corujo, aims to consider the "special difficulties" that the eastern islands are going through, as a result of the tourism crisis caused by the mobility restrictions imposed to deal with the pandemic.
The initiative considers the direct relationship between the fall in tourism activity and the collapse experienced by the economy to be "indisputable", and highlights that the eastern islands have a "very high degree" of dependence on tourism, well above the Canary Islands average, "which makes a differentiated treatment advisable." A treatment that, in Corujo's opinion, should include both specific lines of financing and direct actions by the Government of the Canary Islands.
In this sense, emphasis is placed on the fact that the degree of tourist specialization of each of the islands is not homogeneous, since while in other islands agriculture, industry and services play a relevant role in their GDP, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura depend almost exclusively on tourism, to the point that it is estimated that economic activity on both islands has fallen by more than 30%.
Unemployment exceeds the regional average by 15 points
The socialist deputy assured that she is "convinced" that all the deputies share "the need to treat in a differentiated way islands with unemployment figures that exceed the regional average by fifteen points, such as Fuerteventura or Lanzarote, whose unemployment figure is more than double the Canary Islands average."
For Corujo, facing from Lanzarote and Fuerteventura the "enormous task" that the economic reactivation will entail "will not be easy". "The mere existence of European, Spanish and Canarian recovery plans is not a sufficient condition to guarantee the arrival of the different funds to the extent that the economy of these two islands needs it. It also requires the existence of programs to compete for, the real capacity to execute them both by level of competence and by administrative capacity," she defended.
In addition, she recalled that Lanzarote and Fuerteventura have contributed "for years and years" to the common coffers "much more than they have received, and it was fair that it was so, because we enjoyed a thriving economy, we were the islands with the highest population growth and the greatest social and economic dynamism. Today we are the most affected islands. Today we need the helping hand of the territories and people with whom we share this common project called the Canary Islands."
"In times when island and local administrations are overloaded, the collaboration of the Government in the execution of projects aimed at economic recovery is essential, because it is the only way to guarantee that the forecasts become realities," explained the socialist deputy, who obtained the unanimous support of all the groups.
