Negative outcome for Zapatero meeting

THE Vice-president of the Balearic Government, Rosa Estaras, was sorry to say that the meeting she had with the Leader of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the Balearic Leader, Jaume Matas, on Saturday did not result in any concrete agreements for cheaper and more inter-island flights. This is “bad news for residents in Minorca and Ibiza” as currently the airline services offered by Air Nostrum are “flagrant”, with many early morning and late afternoon flights cancelled during the winter months, she added yesterday. To this she added the announcement of “flight reductions in the last few weeks” between these islands.
The Balearic government did not only ask the central government to fulfill this public service, but they also asked them to sign a new airline declaration, which is “better than the old one”, the Vice-President confirmed. However the Balearic government have not given up all hope on flight services and will still continue fighting for this agreement.
The meeting did not come out with any agreements on the train treaty either, Rosa Estaras added, even though last June (five months ago) the Secretary General for the Socialist Party (PSIB), Francesc Antich, as well as the Ministry for Public Works sent requests to the central government asking for their participation in signing this agreement. Five months on and we still have no answer to the train agreement from them, she said.
However, there was some good news from Saturday's important meeting, as there was a positive outcome reached for the Road Agreement.
For this road agreement, the Balearic government will act as an intermediary between the central government and the island councils, and the wish is to concrete this in a short space of time. The central Ministry for Public Works and Buildings already has all the developed proposals from all island departments, which was sent to them a year ago. The Vice-President also highlighted the good advances for financial matters, although the advances will not be implemented until 2007, when the current financial model is changed.