Last Tuesday the Council of Ministers approved an aid package for those affected by the La Palma volcano. Among the measures contained in the Royal Decree Law specific to the island are the deduction of 60% of the island’s personal income tax for the current year, the authorization to distribute 100 million euros from the community surplus among farmers, the extension of the suspension of payments of the affected farmers, as well as the extension of the deadlines for the projects that local administrations have with funds from the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
This royal decree is the result of negotiations between the two Administrations. On August 18, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, met the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, in a meeting in the presence of the Minister of Territorial Policies and Clavijo’s predecessor, Ángel Víctor Torres. At that meeting the parties discussed the so-called Canary Islands agenda. In October, Clavijo met with the first vice president of the Government and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, where they agreed to unblock the main issues announced on Tuesday.
The royal decree approved this Tuesday will have to have the favorable vote of the People’s Party (which governs the islands together with the Canary Islands Coalition) in Congress, which seems certain, given that the Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Canary Islands Government and president of the Cabildo of Palma during the eruption, the popular Mariano Hernández Zapata, affirmed this support as soon as the royal decree for the island was approved at the end of the Mixed Commission for the reconstruction of La Palma.
The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, hailed this Tuesday as “a promising start” for the approval of the Canary Islands Agenda, to which the Council of Ministers gave the green light on Tuesday to one with specific measures for the island of La Palma. Clavijo expressed the opinion that with this decree with specific measures for La Palma “there has been progress”, although he underlined that “this is not the Canary Islands decree” that is being worked on, “which is reflected in the Canary Islands Agenda, in the Statute and in the expanded General State Budgets”.
