The Popular Party is a party with a clear European vocation. A conviction in which we reaffirm ourselves daily by noting that the decisions adopted within the European Union, in the European Parliament, directly affect each and every one of the Spaniards.
Despite this reality, it is no less true that a large part of the citizens does not have this perception. How many times have we heard friends, family and people in our environment say things like... "Europe is very far away", "it doesn't affect me at all" or "what is Europe and the European elections for"?.
These are statements that we hear on a regular basis and it is here when those of us who have some kind of political and public responsibility must say mea culpa because, with total certainty, the problem is that we have not been able to convey to the citizens what the European Parliament is and, above all and more importantly, how much it influences and is present in our daily lives.
A large part of the regulations and decisions adopted within the European framework, both at legislative and economic level, almost 80%, practically mark and without realizing it our day to day.
From morning to night, Europe is present in our lives. The European Parliament is the one that regulates the quality requirements that food, toiletries or, for example, the safety guarantee of our vehicle must meet.
This involvement also occurs at an economic level. In Brussels it is decided how much money is allocated to each country, the distribution criteria and the purpose of the same in matters as vital for our Autonomous Community as are infrastructures, agriculture, livestock or fishing, among others.
Europe is important for everyone and in the case of the Canary Islands, even more so, due to our status as an outermost region that the European Union tacitly recognizes, and that allows us to have specific measures in favor of our territory, marked by the difficulties involved in geographical distance and insularity. And, precisely, so that these factors do not become an obstacle to our development, Europe contemplates a cohesion policy as well as specific fisheries and agricultural funds for our region.
This fact should also make us reflect on how much the Canarians lost with respect to Europe during the two legislatures of the Socialist Party Government. A Government that far from reinforcing Spain's position in the European Union, made our country lose the important political weight that we had managed to maintain in Europe until 2003.
Let us remember the successive reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the reduction of funds that was carried out under the Government of Rodríguez Zapatero. Up to a tenth of the financing that the Popular Party had negotiated at the time for the period 2000-2006 and which reached 47,740 million euros of net balance.
During the last two years of the legislature, the Government of the Popular Party has managed to move us away from the abyss in which we found ourselves with a country in bankruptcy, on the verge of being rescued and without financing capacity.
Although the road out of the crisis is not being easy, there is still much to go, the route to grow, create employment and get out of the crisis is drawn. However, completing it depends to a large extent on the weight and representativeness that the party that supports the Government of Spain, in this case the Popular Party, has in Europe.
It is essential that we are in Europe, but not anecdotally, but forming part of a strong parliamentary group, which participates in decision-making and improves the role of Spain and the Archipelago in European policies.
We Canarians have a lot at stake in these elections and on May 25 our vote will mark the future for years to come. That is why it is so important that we continue to move in the right direction and not take a single step back.
Astrid Pérez, president of the Popular Party of Lanzarote
