At a crunch time when Palma and Ibiza airports are having building and border control problems, the Joint Committee (Congress and Senate) on Insularity approved today, Tuesday, thanks to the abstention of the PP and PSOE, an initiative by several of the government’s parliamentary allies to urge the government to include the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands in the co-management of their airports within a maximum period of six months.
This is a motion – a non-legislative initiative – presented by the Confederal Left Group (Más Madrid, Compromís, Asociación Socialista Gomera, Geroa Bai and the senator for the Pitiusas), which received a single vote against from Vox, whilst the PP and PSOE chose to abstain, a move that proved decisive in its passage.
The initiative urges the central government to apply the same model agreed with the Basque Country to the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. Indeed, the Canary Islands government is currently negotiating to reach a plan similar to that of the Basque Country regarding airport infrastructure.
However, these government allies have secured the support of the Spanish Parliament to enshrine in writing the ‘guarantee’ of real and effective participation by the regional governments of the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, and eventually also by the island councils, in the planning, programming and management of airports of general interest located in their respective territories.
They therefore propose that, within a maximum of six months, this model of airport co-governance be promoted, allowing the regional governments of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands to participate in decision-making affecting the connectivity, mobility and economic development of both regions.
Similarly, they propose a review of “the powers, composition and functioning of the current airport coordination committees, so that they cease to be merely advisory bodies with no effective capacity to influence decisions taken by airport authority Aena and other bodies within the state airport system”.
They also seek to ensure that any changes to airport charges, reductions in services, alterations to routes or strategic decisions with an impact on the connectivity of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands are subject to prior mechanisms for information, consultation and participation by the respective regional governments and island administrations.
Finally, they wish to promote a framework for institutional collaboration that reconciles the coordinated operation of the state airport network with respect for the rights recognised in the statutes of autonomy of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.