The Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, has today presented the data related to the distribution in the Archipelago by the Government of Spain of the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan from the Next Generation EU funds agreed by the European Union to face the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At a press conference today at the headquarters of the Government Delegation in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Anselmo Pestana reported that the Canary Islands has received 1,732 million euros from European funds, of which, until March 2023, 1,383 million euros from the Spanish Government’s Recovery Transformation and Resilience Plan correspond to agreements, subsidies, direct concessions and transfers for the Autonomous Community.
In addition, until February 2023, and through direct execution actions of the General Administration of the State (AGE) with funds of the Recovery Plan, different entities of the Canary Islands have received more than 349 million euros for the development of 6,065 beneficiary projects in the Archipelago.
In the province of Las Palmas, these actions of direct execution of the State are materialized in 180 million euros, for the development of 3,100 actions, while in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife the agencies of the AGE are already executing 2,965 projects with more than 169 million euros of financing.
“These figures show that European funds are reaching the territory, where it is most needed, and specifically the Canary Islands, where the pandemic has had a particularly intense effect due to the productive model we have, being affected to a greater extent by our economic engine, tourism, by the stop in the movement of people,” says the government delegate.
“These figures are also the basis on which our archipelago can relaunch its economy and build a new model, more sustainable and socially equitable, that allows all Canaries to improve, advance, progress and emerge from the situation of recent years with greater prospects for the future and hope,” he adds.
Improved management and use of water resources
Something fundamental to advance the transformation of the productive model in the Islands has to do with improving the management and use of water resources for all inhabitants, tourism and agriculture, for which 111 million euros have been allocated.
Specifically, 25 million euros have been transferred to the Autonomous Community for the improvement of water supply and the reduction of water losses in small municipalities, 12 million euros in sanitation and wastewater purification and 7 million euros for the digitization of the water cycle.
In the province of Las Palmas three irrigation modernization projects are being developed for more than 33.5 million euros, while in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife seven projects are being carried out in this same area for more than 34.5 million euros.
The General Administration of the State, through the State Society of Agrarian Infrastructures SEIASA, has already committed about 68 million euros for the modernization of irrigation through the execution of 10 projects, of which three are on the island of La Palma (Community of irrigators of Los Sauces, the project of the raft of El Paso, and the modernization and improvement of the irrigation in Breña Alta, Breña Baja, Mazo and Fuencaliente), one in El Sorrento (Community of irrigators of the Canary Island and Island).
In terms of ecological transition, the commitment of the Government of Spain to advance the green transition of the economy of the Canary Islands must be valued, for which it has already allocated 467 million euros of the Recovery Plan exclusively for the Archipelago, which is also complemented with other financing lines such as the 23 million euros for the promotion of self-consumption and the energy storage of homes and companies.
In addition, in the first call for the development of innovative energy storage projects two projects with 3.9 million euros have been funded in Las Palmas for the development of a hybrid energy storage system and its connection to the network.
And in the area of the transformation of the energy model of the Canary Islands, the Government of Spain is studying and advancing in the definition of relevant projects through the application of new technologies such as offshore wind, in locations already identified in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, as well as projects in the field of geothermal energy use, with an evident application in La Palma or projects for resilience and the improvement of energy autonomy in La Gomera.
For sustainable mobility, the transformation of the vehicle and transport fleet and the development of low-emission areas in the Canary Islands have already mobilized more than 100 million euros, of which it is necessary to highlight the more than 31 million euros of the MOVES III Program for the deployment of the electric vehicle and the infrastructure of the charging points and the 21 million euros destined for the development of sustainable mobility projects in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gáldar, Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Arrecife and Los Realejos, through the call for competitive mobility of 50 000 inhabitants.
Commitment to sustainable tourism
It also highlights the commitment of the Government of Spain to a fundamental economic sector in the Islands, such as tourism, so more 136 million euros have been transferred from the Recovery Plan to make the tourism model more sustainable and resilient.
15 projects have been funded with more than 75 million euros from the call 2021 and 2022 of Destination Tourism Sustainability Plans, while, within the preservation of the natural environment linked to tourism, more than 40 million euros have been transferred through the Recovery Plan for actions aimed at the empowerment of natural parks, biosphere reserves and the protection of biodiversity and the restoration of ecosystems.
Different Canary Islands entities already participate in resolved calls for 5 PERTEs (state-of-the-art health; renewable energies, renewable hydrogen and energy storage; agro-food and aerospace), and also the Canary Islands participates prominently in the Aerospace PERTE with about 16 million euros in projects already in execution.
Of these, the more than 12.3 million euros of the Complementary Biodiversity Plan must be valued for the program of development of pseudosatellite platforms of high altitude (), which will allow to turn Fuerteventura into a global reference in the development of this technology that can be used for earth observation with applications such as border surveillance, biodiversity preservation, monitoring and firefighting or the provision of 5G coverage in remote areas.
In addition, in the PERTE Aerospace we must highlight the actions for the development of the Single European Sky, for more than 3.5 million euros, which are already being carried out through ENAIRE.
The channeling of European funds also demonstrates the commitment of the Government of Spain to the SMEs and self-employed people of the Canary Islands through two direct management programs of the State Administration such as the Digital KIT and the line of financial guarantees of the Spanish Refinancing Company CERSA (attached to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism), aimed exclusively at this type of companies fundamental to the economic and social fabric and of which there are already more than 1,500 SMEs and self-employed beneficiaries with about 30 million euros of support.
The Canary Islands has been positioning itself in recent years as a global hub in audiovisual production and, in this sense, the Government of Spain is committed to strengthening this industry and together with the Regional Administration is working on the development of the project of accelerating industries in the audiovisual sector that will be strengthened within the framework of the Addendum to the Plan.