The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres Pérez, expressed his confidence that 2023 will be a fruitful year for the regions remotely located from the centre of the European Union, as the Canary Islands will hold next year the Presidency of the Outermost Regions (ORs) and Spain will be presiding over the Council of the EU.
As reports EFE, Torres Pérez stated that this week’s work in Brussels included “very fruitful” meetings, both for the Canary Islands and for the ORs in general, following meetings on Thursday with the Spanish ambassador to the EU, Marcos Alonso, and with the Secretary General for the European Union, María Lledó.
“Any modification of the treaties will preserve the outermost and unique status of the Canary Islands for Spain,” said the regional president, who also assured that the archipelago is moving towards “exemption from any green tax”.
“We have already achieved this for national flights and we are also moving towards it for international flights,” added the Canary Islands leader.
Torres Pérez also assured that there is “clear support” for the future European Tourism Agency, which will begin operating in 2028 and which the Canary Islands aspire to host, to have its headquarters in an outermost region.
“We have the support of the nine communities representing three countries, and its location is the Canary Islands”, said the Socialist politician, who also assured that he had the approval of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, with whom he also met in the Belgian capital.
Another of the objectives is to achieve “a great asylum and migration pact that provides a response to border territories such as the Canary Islands” and “the will” is that it can be approved in 2023, coinciding with the Canary Islands’ presidency of the ORs and Spain’s presidency of the Council (in the second half of the year).
“It is a unique opportunity that I believe we are going to take advantage of to promote the reality of the outermost regions and to positively position in Europe and in the world the strength that the remote regions, such as the Canary Islands, have”, he concluded.