The Cabildos hall of the Canary Parliament hosted the latest Tourism Commission, where the deputy for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Marcos Bergaz, asked the minister, Jéssica de León, about the status of the "eternal" Lanzarote Congress Palace project and the support measures planned to make it a reality.
The deputy recalled that, in 2009, following an international ideas competition convened by the Canary Islands Government, the "Fractal" proposal by Henning Larsen Architects and Carlos Morales was selected. A project that was drafted in 2011, with an estimated investment of thirty million on a plot of 15,260 square meters located in Arrecife, near the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
"Councilwoman, we are talking about an infrastructure that, like the Guadiana River, appears and disappears from the political agenda with the same frequency that it is included or not in the Canary Islands budget. In fact, in 2023, under the Pacto de Las Flores government, an economic allocation of 1.2 million was included; in 2024, it disappeared with the Coalición Canaria and Partido Popular executive; and in 2025, as well as in the draft budget for 2026, 500,000 euros were allocated," Bergaz indicatedBergaz considered this infrastructure an opportunity. "An opportunity for culture, as Arrecife and Lanzarote would gain a new, high-quality multipurpose space for developing congresses and events aimed at residents and visitors; but also to strengthen a sector, that of congresses, where tourists spend an average of 388 euros per day, compared to 188 euros for leisure tourists."For her part, the councilor, Jéssica de León, conveyed the urbanistic difficulties that the plot where the project is planned to be executed still presents.
“The 15,000 square meter plot was ceded by the Arrecife City Council to the Cabildo of Lanzarote; part of the plot is in the public maritime-terrestrial domain. Today, the Cabildo will be in negotiations to declassify that part and try to find a solution through Law 4/2017, on land”.
Likewise, regarding Arrecife City Council, he stated: "It is working so that, through the Arrecife Supplementary General Plan, which is about to be released, it will resolve part of the problem with that plot so that the project can now be executed."To conclude, he added that, "once this plot is unblocked and it is a firm project, or even if we can help finance the final drafting of the execution project, from then on the Ministry of Tourism is willing to support the Cabildo of Lanzarote."
