Coalition Canaria and Nueva Canarias have been waiting for nine months for the Minister of Development to appear before the Development Committee of Congress to report on the partial privatization process of AENA. Nine months in which the State Government has chosen to evade its responsibility to report on its management to the Cortes Generales and has opted for the path that they exploit the most in this legislature: the unilateral approval, without prior debate, of all its reforms, including those that directly affect the economic and strategic development of especially sensitive territories such as the Canary Islands.
The Minister of Development has not had the courage to show her face where it belongs and has avoided putting on the table in the legislative chambers the different options that exist on how the airport network should be managed. As on previous occasions, they have designed and approved their plans in closed offices and in meetings reserved for certain sectors, in which the presence of the Autonomous Communities has been vetoed.
In its solo race to reform the entire legislative architecture and management models of administrations and public companies, the State Government has taken a false step by closing the doors to the autonomies in the management system, betting on a model that represents a very serious error for the future of the airport network.
The State Government, as so many times, ignores that the Statutes of Autonomy of the Canary Islands, Catalonia or the Basque Country "assume the management of airports of general interest when the State has not reserved its direct management." And the representatives of the three territories have already warned Fomento that they will activate their respective Statutes in the event that it insists on maintaining the path it has opened for the partial privatization of airports.
The Government assures that it is legally based on Royal Decree-Law 13/2010, approved in the past legislature, but deliberately hides that it indicated in its preamble - as a normative purpose - to open channels for the individualized management of airports through the creation of subsidiaries or the granting of management concessions.
Individualized management is a common model in Europe, the United States, Canada or Australia, where the monopolistic approach that Spain maintains does not exist, which will end up having problems in terms of defense of competition and profound repercussions for the future of the airport service. In fact, Spain is configured within the European scope as the only country with a centralized and joint management system in the hands of AENA with a high volume of both infrastructure and passengers transported.
On the occasion of the reform of the airport sector, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) prepared two documents in which it openly aligns itself with the theses that we nationalist groups defend. Two documents that, unfortunately, have not been taken into account by the Government. In that analysis, it is underlined as a negative aspect that "the main decisions on the relevant variables are taken centrally for all airports, greatly limiting the possible competition between airport infrastructures, which would contribute to more efficient prices, higher quality and greater benefits for users. All this entails a lack of individualized treatment of each airport, a disincentive to economic efficiency, possible cross-subsidies and a lower correlation between investments and traffic."
The CNMC also understands that "the reflection process should analyze the impact of the changes both on the efficiency of the economic system as a whole and on the different groups of interest related to airports (namely, the General State Administration, Autonomous Communities, Local Entities, possible private participants, airport operators, passengers, airport employees and air navigation services, concessionaires) allowing the latter to participate in the modifications through a consultation procedure."
The interests of the new partners who sit on the Board of Directors will not always coincide with the plans that the Canary Islands would need to develop, among which today are, for example, the extension of the runway at Lanzarote airport, the extension of the opening hours of Fuerteventura, the solution to the serious problem faced by the residents of Ojos de Garza, the new runways of Tenerife South and Gran Canaria or the differentiated treatment of the airports of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.
And a warning: a European ruling that declares AENA's centralized model as contrary to competition rules would entail an enormous public budgetary cost that, in the foreseeable event that it occurs, would inevitably affect citizens' taxes.
Faced with recentralization and monopoly, the Canarian nationalists are committed to their own network: "Canarian Airports."
Ana Oramas, deputy of Coalición Canaria