ACN
The president of the Canarian Coalition, Paulino Rivero, assured yesterday in Madrid that neither the regional government nor his party are willing "to go begging through the ministries" for the fulfillment of the commitments reached with the central Executive in terms of Infrastructure on May 5.
He also said that CC will "review" its favorable predisposition to support the next General State Budgets if in the fall the criteria for health financing are not modified upwards or if the Executive adopts any "bilateral agreement" with any Autonomous Community such as Catalonia that "harms" the general system of autonomous financing of the Archipelago.
During a meeting with journalists, Rivero stated that the budget negotiations next fall will be "very linked" to the debate on health financing, for which CC has demanded that the population criteria be reviewed and that double insularity be taken into account, issues that would be raised from September at the II Conference of Autonomous Presidents and at the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF).
Regarding the delay in the signing of the Infrastructure Agreements, the CC-NC spokesman said that "seven or eight months have been lost due to the lack of diligence of the Ministry of Development", since since the end of last year there has been "a political agreement" to equalize investments in the Canary Islands with those of the State throughout the legislature.
"I don't want to think that they are not going to comply with the agreed amounts, because we will not accept a euro less," said Rivero in reference to the figures that, several months after said political agreement, were offered on May 5, when CC and the regional government finally announced that their agreement on Infrastructure had been finalized.
May agreements
On May 5, the central and regional governments announced an agreement on Infrastructure whereby, starting from 76 million euros for the Road Agreement in 2005, in 2006 this amount would increase to 147, to reach 172 in 2007 and 183 in 2008.
As ACN Press reported at the time, the agreement also generically contemplated that investments in Coasts and the Environment would increase by 14 million euros each year.
'Tug of war'
The announcement of the agreement came hours before the President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, received the President of the Regional Executive, Adán Martín, at the Palacio de La Moncloa, and after months of a long 'tug of war' in search of an agreement on Infrastructure.
A little over a week later, Martín announced the dismissal of the three PP councilors who were part of his government, for harming the regional Executive's relations with the central government.
