In Lanzarote, we have been suffering the neglect and abandonment of various regional and national governments for many years. On the island, we have been demanding for more than a decade the need for a series of basic infrastructures and improvements to our environmental spaces; requests that we have seen forgotten by our leaders in the Government of the Canary Islands and also by some national governments.
I want to remind you that in the general elections of November 2011, the Popular Party of Lanzarote acquired a series of commitments with the people of Lanzarote: we proposed that we would fight in Madrid for the expansion of the Port of Los Mármoles, an infrastructure that Lanzarote had been demanding for years and that is a priority to be able to welcome large cruise ships on our island and contribute to increasing the battered economy of Lanzarote, which depends, to a large extent, on tourism.
The Minister of Development herself, Ana Pastor, described the construction work of the new dike in the port of the capital of Lanzarote as a priority. The Government of the Popular Party fulfilled its promise and the works are pending bidding for 25.5 million euros.
For some, it is true that for many not, commitments are debts, and as this should be a principle, the Government of Spain of the Popular Party, and despite the devastating economic crisis that we have suffered, has invested and fulfilled its promises for the island of Lanzarote.
Recently, we have started the preliminary works for the Dredging of the Charco de los Clicos in El Golfo; dredging whose file began in the legislature in which the Popular Party governed Spain under the presidency of José María Aznar, and that later, the Government of the Socialist Party, despite governing Spain for 8 years, was unable to execute.
It will be with a government of the Popular Party when the recovery of the Charco de Los Clícos becomes a reality as a result of the work and effort that the popular people of Lanzarote have put in and the environmental sensitivity of the State Government, to face the project with its own economic funds through the General Directorate of Coasts, which amount to 600,000 euros, an economic amount higher than initially planned.
Another promise fulfilled by the state government of the Popular Party has to do with road transport. A new sign that the State is not oblivious to the idiosyncrasy of the Canary Islands is the new regulation of driving and rest times in road transport in the islands approved by the Council of Ministers, which addresses the singularities of the sector in the Canary Islands and a repeated demand from Lanzarote carriers.
A new regulation that allows to flexibilize the rules on driving and rest times in road transport, taking into account the singularity of the island territories, where the tonic is short routes and inter-island journeys. A clear example that the national Government fulfills its commitments with the Canary Islands, providing efficient and effective responses for the transport sector of goods and passengers.
And what about the Payment Plan to Suppliers launched by the state government of the Popular Party. This measure has not only relieved the municipal coffers but has allowed many small entrepreneurs to continue their activities with greater solvency. Like the new financing conditions of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA).
Through the payment plan to suppliers, it has been possible to pay more than eight million invoices from some 200,000 suppliers of the territorial administrations that were pending collection of more than 41,800 million euros. The courageous action taken by the Ministry of Finance has also made possible the maintenance of more than 400,000 jobs throughout the Spanish geography.
The Canary Islands administrations, for their part, have received more than 1,098 million euros for this concept, of which 38 million euros have reached Lanzarote and specifically 16 million euros to the Arrecife City Council, in addition to a great relief to its leaders who have been able to update the municipal accounts and offer their basic services with much more tranquility.
But the Government of the Popular Party continues with its commitment to improve the economic conditions of the administrations that are in direct contact with the citizen and has just approved the Royal Decree Law on financial sustainability measures of the autonomous communities and local entities, with which, for the first time, financing is offered incentivizing compliance with budgetary stability objectives and the payment period to suppliers, with an interest rate of 0 per 100 for 2015.
All this is not a story, they are measures adopted by and for the citizens, at the service of the citizens and for their well-being, for which the administrations must effectively be. It is not a story, they are commitments fulfilled and made reality.
Ástrid Pérez Batista, President of the Popular Party of Lanzarote