Extra funds to push ahead with redevelopment of Playa de Palma. | P. Bota

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The national government is to pay the Balearics 322 million euros that relate to outstanding investment due to the islands.
This has been agreed at the meeting of the joint commission of the Balearic and national governments which was presided over by President Armengol and the finance minister, Cristóbal Montoro.

The agreement has been made almost at the last minute, given that the general election is in just over two weeks, and while Montoro’s ministry has not agreed to the full 460 million euros that the Balearic government had been seeking, the vice-president, Biel Barceló, says that he is “moderately satisfied” at the outcome.

Of the 322 million, 240 euros relate to agreements on road building that go back more than ten years. This amount will be paid in three tranches from next year, meaning that 80 million, not currently allocated in the Balearic budget for 2016, will now be available. Catalina Cladera, the regional finance minister, who was also at the meeting of the commission, says that it has not yet been decided what will be done with this amount.

The other 82 million euros are for various projects that haven’t been carried out. These are investments in Palma and Minorca’s technology parks, the Toni Catany photographic centre in Llucmajor, the old Sindicat wine co-operative building in Felanitx, Can Weyler in Palma and the re-redevelopment of Playa de Palma. On the latter of these, the government has not been able to squeeze out the 63 million of unforthcoming investment it had been wanting (by extending the deadline for the justification of works). Barceló says, therefore, that a meeting will be asked for with the ministry of tourism (at national level) to address the shortfall. The Playa de Palma Consortium is expected to make an official request for this shortly.

The Armengol government, despite having a promise of 322 million, has told Montoro that it is not giving up on the almost 1,000 million euros that should have been forthcoming in the form of state investments over several years. The demand for this will, however,  have to wait until after the general election.

Armengol, Barceló and Cladera all criticised the previous president, José Ramón Bauzá, for not having “lifted a finger” in applying pressure to obtain the outstanding investments. The joint commission hadn’t in fact met since 2009. “If this government hadn’t acted, then the money would probably have been lost,” Barceló noted.

On 16 December, so just four days before the election, the regional government will start the process for negotiating a new deal on the special economic regime for the Balearics that will, it hopes, be developed with the next national government.
In addition, and as has been pointed out often enough, a new financing system is being sought to compensate for Balearic insularity.