Building development in the Balearics

Projects can be delayed for years because of the tangle of regulations. | J. Gilabert

Andrew EdePalma29/01/2024 07:50
TW
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The Balearic government is to undertake a massive repeal of laws, decrees and orders that have accumulated over forty years of autonomous government in the Balearics and which are considered to be ineffective as well as a burden on administrative operations and citizens.

In order to bring this repeal about, there has to be a law, in this instance the administrative simplification law, the responsibility of the vice-president and finance minister, Antoni Costa. He says that, over the years, rules and procedures have been established which have been added to previous ones and caused a bureaucratic tangle. Many of these regulations are unnecessary and create more problems than they solve.

"You have to clean them up. Citizens perceive that procedures can take forever. It is not normal that licences to build a home take two years in some municipalities and up to six or seven in places like Formentera."

Although the scope of the repeal covers years of Partido Popular (previously Alianza Popular) government, Costa takes a particular swipe at the eight years of PSOE-led government from 2015 to 2023. There was "interventionist and protectionist policy". "This government is here to change things, a government of freedom and respect for individual rights and private property."

In this process of deregulation, the government has two bodies firmly in its sights - the Balearic Environment Commission and the Department of Water Resources. "There is a feeling that these two have had a clear paralysing function, in many cases with the intention of making developers give up due to sheer exhaustion."

According to the government, 13,000 renewable energy projects are currently on hold, while another 4,000 projects are stuck with Water Resources and 6,000 with the Environment Department. "It cannot be that projects are paralysed for over two years because some departments analyse beyond their competence."