Canary Islands back funding plan as Madrid boycotts

The Canary Islands could help push Spain’s new regional funding plan forward on Friday after Madrid says it will skip the key meeting and urges other People’s Party-run regions to do the same. The proposal goes before the Council for Fiscal and Financial Policy, the forum where the central government and regions discuss funding. Catalonia is also expected to support it.

Madrid says the plan was agreed bilaterally with ERC before other regions saw it. Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s government says preventing a quorum is the only way to stop the agreement being approved at the meeting.

The Finance Ministry, led by Arcadi España, called the boycott appeal irresponsible. Several People’s Party-led regions have already said they will attend the council, which they had been demanding for months. The meeting had been set for July but was moved to September at the party’s request because of the fires.

One region can carry the plan forward

The central government controls 50% of the votes in the council. That means support from just one autonomous community is enough to move the draft on, with Catalonia and the Canary Islands expected to provide that backing.

The Canary Islands say their vote depends on two conditions: recognition of the islands’ particular circumstances and payment of the funds set out in the plan. Catalonia’s government, led by Salvador Illa, has defended the model agreed with ERC, saying it need not harm other regions.

If the council approves the proposal on Friday, it will go next to the Council of Ministers and then to the Congress of Deputies.

Opposition from Madrid to Asturias

Castilla-La Mancha and Asturias, the two Socialist-led regions rejecting the plan, have also objected. Castilla-La Mancha says an arrangement agreed with one party and one region does not guarantee equality.

Asturias calls the proposal unfair. It says the calculation of adjusted population does not give enough weight to an ageing population and mountainous terrain, despite their effect on the cost of public services.

People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has also rejected the model, calling it a system for Pedro Sánchez’s political survival.

Topics: Fires · Politics · Economy

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com