The proposed Green Tax

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Noticias:

Tomorrow we vote on the Socialist amendment so that flights from the islands with third parties do not pay the CO2 emission tax, called "the green tax".

Tomorrow the European Parliament votes on an amendment to the Community Directive on Emissions Trading that penalizes the use of kerosene, so that the archipelago is exempt from the ecological tax on air connections with third countries due to its status as an outermost region, as demanded by the Canarian Government.

 
In the case of not achieving it, the measure would mean a significant increase in the price of air tickets to the islands from European countries, with serious consequences for the tourism sector, but the possibility of contemplating the exemption can give an important boost to the economy of the islands, since comparatively it would be at an advantage with other areas.
 
Connections between the Canary Islands and the peninsula are already exempt from the outset in the directive itself, which states that the green tax is not applicable to aircraft operators on emissions that occur until 2030 on flights 'between an aerodrome located in an outermost region of a Member State and an aerodrome located in the same Member State outside that outermost region', says Loreto Gutiérrez in the Canarias 7.
 
Juan Fernando López Aguilar in his struggle to leave the Canary Islands out of the tax for the emission of CO2, appealed to the singularities of the ORs, and in this sense the president of the Canarian Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, believes that the agreement reached by López Aguilar allows to be optimistic about the decisive vote tomorrow in the European Parliament, and assures that its approval would be "magnificent news" for the Canary Islands.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Noticias:

The Canary Islands would avoid the green tax also on flights with Europe.

The European Parliament endorses the exception of the Canary Islands until 2030 in CO2 emission rights for air transport.

Torres is pleased that the European Parliament has approved today an amendment to the complementary directive that regulates CO2 emissions in air transport by which the Canary Islands are exempted from the payment of rights on flights with countries of the European Economic Area, something previously achieved for connections between islands and the Peninsula

 

The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, welcomed this afternoon the decision of the European Parliament to endorse, through approval of an amendment, the exception of the Islands until 2030 in the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions trading system for air connections with the countries that make up the European Economic Area (all those that are in the European Union, 27 -EU-, together with Norway, Liechetenstein and Iceland), given its status as an outermost region (OR) within the EU. The exception has been achieved through the adoption of an amendment to the supplementary directive regulating the market for CO2 emission allowances on air connections. This measure had already been achieved for flights between islands and from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula.

 

"That measure, key to the economic future of the Canary Islands, has been feasible thanks to an amendment by the European Socialist Group promoted by the Canarian MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar and that achieved the necessary support from different political parties to be introduced in today's vote. Then he obtained the majority support of the European Parliament, "says the Government of the Canary Islands.

 

The amendment proposes to exempt the nine ORs in the emission allowance market for flights between the islands and the member countries of the European Economic Area, which joins the exception already obtained, also until 2030, for flights to the Peninsula and between the islands themselves. The report on which this achievement is based has also been adopted and sets out the negotiating position of the European Parliament from now on on this very issue, so that this derogation can also be accepted by the European Council and the European Commission.

 

"Although today's majority support for that amendment does not mean the final approval of the so-called complementary directive on air transport, as it has yet to be ratified by the European Council and the European Commission, Torres is very satisfied with what has been achieved because the option of having it endorsed by the European Parliament modified is almost non-existent."

 

With this process, the unique treatment and respect for the specificities of the ORs in the transition towards the decarbonisation of the EU is reinforced, both for their remoteness and for their insularity and economic dependence and in the mobility of air and maritime connections, especially due to the weight of sectors such as tourism and the remoteness of the European continent.

 

Torres highlights "the work done in these three years by the Government of the Canary Islands and the Spanish and European Socialists, together with other political groups, to get a majority of the European Parliament to approve the aforementioned amendment today".

 
The president of the Canary Islands points out that "the principle of the ORs has been safeguarded, with the amendment approved today, for the singular treatment of obligations in air transport. This ensures that this specificity is also respected in future EU legislation designed to achieve an overall reduction of 55% in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and 100% by 2050."

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Noticias:

Flying from Europe to the Canary Islands would cost 45 euros more each way from 2030.

The European kerosene tax ecotax will come into force for the rest of Europe in 2024.

From the year 24 the European Community will launch a new type of kerosene tax, which is ultimately a way of taxing airplane flights, considered the most polluting. Europe wants to encourage other types of transport that accumulate less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and therefore try to reduce the greenhouse effect.

 

In this sense, the Canary Islands, as an outermost region dependent on tourism, presented a battle in European organizations and managed to delay the rule by six years. Flying to the islands will not be taxed with the ecotax until 2030.

 

It's not that far away

 

But times and deadlines are shortening and 2030 is not so far away. In this way, if technology does not change, the situation of dependence on tourism in the Canary Islands could take a serious setback in less time than your child prepares to enter school.

 

Flying to the islands in 2030 will be 45 euros more expensive in each direction, due to the introduction of the new tax on aviation fuel that the European Union is considering introducing. In reality, it will also be just as expensive to fly within the Peninsula, but in the islands it worries more because there are no alternatives (Iberia warns the Government: "Only the elites will be able to travel").

 

In Malta, where opposition to this tax is very well organized, they insist that the impact on the island will be devastating. "Taxes only make the exercise of freedom of movement more expensive and difficult for the general public to achieve," warns Nadia Giordimaina, of an international affairs think tank.

 

No alternatives

 

Meanwhile, islands like Fuerteventura are still waiting for the political and business class to decide to try to lay the foundations of a reliable alternative to the tourism industry, or at least some kind of complementary industry. "There are 7 years left to face a new world that has been brewing for a long time, and here the only thing that matters are the armchairs," says a prominent business leader.

 
The discourses advocate "economic diversification", but the reality is different. Fuerteventura increasingly "political obstacles" to alternative realities that do not come out of the monoculture of tourism and a residual primary sector.

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Noticias:

New kerosene tax on out-of-state flights shakes tourism industry.

The tourism employer fears the consequences that will have for the Canary Islands that the EU only exempts from the new kerosene tax on flights from Spain.
The Federation of Hotel and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas (FEHT) has expressed this Friday "its alarm" at the consequences that will have for the Canary Islands that the EU only exempts from the new kerosene tax on flights arriving on the islands from the rest of Spain.

 

This means that it will apply to everyone coming from other EU countries, the UK and Switzerland.

 

In a statement, the tourist association describes as "negotiating failure for the Canary Islands" the fact that a full exemption has not been achieved.

 

It understands that the entry into force of this tax will be "very harmful to the archipelago" and, in particular, to the competitiveness of the sector.

 

Therefore, they urge to continue negotiating that the exemption that has already been obtained for flights between islands and between the Canary Islands and the rest of Spain, is extended to the entire EU, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

 

"That and no other is the necessary measure for the Canary Islands and the one that must be included in the final drafting of the norm," he defends.

 

 

The FEHT says that it "understands and supports the negotiating effort made by the Canarian representatives in the EU institutions and the active and vigilant position shown by the Government of the Canary Islands during this decisive process for the competitiveness of the tourism sector of the Islands in the near future".

 
"But, at the same time, regrets the absence of the necessary firmness in the position of the Government of Spain regarding this matter, as a guarantor of the general interest of the outermost regions (OR) of the European Union, among which the Canary Islands is the most relevant from the demographic and economic point of view," he adds.