Balearic President calls for urgent measures to halt an escalation in flight prices

Armengol fears that the war and the rising cost of fuel will cause a price hike in air fares that will have direct consequences on the income of the local population.

The president took advantage of the meeting of the Conference of Presidents, which was held on the island of La Palma over the weekend, to call for urgent measures to prevent the price of flights from soaring.

The President explained to her colleague from other regions in Spain that living on islands makes the population of the Balearics much more dependent on transport and called for compensatory measures for the primary and transport sectors.

There will be a conference on this issue with the vice-presidents Nadia Calviño and Teresa Ribera where proposals will be put forward. The Balearics will ask that the fact that the Balearics are isolated islands be taken into account and proposed to reduce the costs of these two sectors with aid to companies so as not to increase the price of fuel or with tax breaks or more aid from the European Union for the transport of goods.

She is not in favour of a “generalised” reduction in taxes, but she is in favour of subsidies or tax breaks for the sectors most affected.
She stressed the need for getting to the root of the problem, which is the increase in the price of energy.

“That means changing the European regulatory system, which is the important thing”.
The president showed her “absolute” support for Sánchez and Ribera “who for the last year have been working to change the regulatory system so that it is not gas that determines the energy bill, because it is nonsense”, she said.

At the meeting with the Prime Minister and the presidents of the different communities, Armengol also raised the need to speed up the procedures for European funds, especially those that affect renewable energies. She said that the first green hydrogen plant operating in Spain has been opened in Lloseta, but insisted that mechanisms are needed to speed up the funds in order to make a better commitment to renewable energies.

The meeting of the central and regional administrations in La Palma also served to address the humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the departure of thousands of refugees from the country.

The Balearic president offered to welcome more Ukrainian citizens to the islands, but also called for the registration of those arriving, who are mainly women with children, to be speeded up.

Armengol considered it essential to have a gender perspective and to think about immediate schooling.
She also called for the refugees’ access to public health care to be guaranteed, and defended the fact that the administrations should help so that they can find work.