The cities of Ceuta and Melilla are territories with unique characteristics, and require special attention for geographical particularities, borders, population diversity, and assistance and migratory pressure. As a result of the Government’s commitment to these Cities, on October 18, 2022, the Council of Ministers approved the Comprehensive Socio-Economic Development Plans of the City of Ceuta, and the City of Melilla.
These plans envisage an investment in the coming years of approximately 354.6 and 356.7 million euros in Ceuta and Melilla respectively, with the aim of ordering the action of the General Administration of the State in the scope of its competences in both cities to promote their structural transformation through a new economic model and policies of urban, commercial, tourist and connectivity development, and through the strengthening of public services.
Among other measures, the Plans establish the need to promote the disaffectation of a significant part of the land owned by the Ministry of Defense. In the city of Ceuta, 32.25% of the land belongs to the Ministry of Defense, being 26.8% in the case of Melilla. Given the scarcity of land available in both cities, it is considered a priority to promote the disaffectation of cantonments and spaces owned by the Ministry of Defense for their change of use.
To this end, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and the Ministry of Defense have signed an interdepartmental agreement, published in the Official State Gazette of July 28, 2023, through which the Ministry of Territorial Policy undertakes to make available to the Ministry of Defense a series of financial resources for it to undertake over the next few years a plan of concentration of military units, which will allow to vacate and disaffect a part of the military surface, which will finally be ceded in a non-onerous way to the City of Ceuta and the City of Melilla.
The aforementioned agreement establishes the commitments over the next few years of the Ministry of Defense in relation to the execution of the works and the financial commitments of the Ministry of Territorial Policy, which, in the year 2023, amount to 4,322,000 euros.