ASG calls for the candidacy of the Canary Islands to the European Tourism Agency to be "shielded"
The Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, backed the candidacy of the Canary Islands in May. /
initiative
Today the Senate is debating a motion by Fabián Chinea that urges the Government to formalize its support for the headquarters to be installed on the islands
The Industry, Tourism and Commerce Committee of the Senate today debates a motion by the representative of the
Gomera Socialist Group (ASG), Fabián Chinea, in which he urges the State Government to officially formalize the presentation of the candidacy of the Canary Islands as the venue for the future European Tourism Agency.
In his initiative, the Gomeran senator recalls that the Canarian president, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced during the
Conference of Outermost Regions held in May in Martinique that the Government of Spain had made official its support for the proposal of the Canary Islands to house the future headquarters of the
European Tourism Agency.
According to the head of the regional Executive, the Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, told him that she had sent a statement to the Director of Overseas France, Sophie Brocas, in which the
Government of Spain officially supported the proposal of the Canary Islands, endorsed in person during the RUP Conference by the general secretary for the EU of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, María Dolores Lledó.
Chinea's motion now seeks that the central government formalize its official support for the future European Tourism Agency to settle in the Canary Islands, to
strengthen options of the archipelago to host the headquarters of the community institution in the face of other possible proposals.
«What I intend with this motion is that, in the case of Spain, there is a single candidacy and that the Senate sets a
unanimous position to shield the option of the Canary Islands, ”says the ASG senator.
The Canary Islands promoted its candidacy in 2021 and in the summer of that same year the President of the Spanish Government,
Pedro Sanchez, conveyed to Ángel Víctor Torres his commitment to support the proposal at a meeting held in Lanzarote. Subsequently, the candidacy was approved in the
Canary Islands Government Council and in November the nine outermost regions of the EU unanimously declared themselves in favor of the headquarters being installed in the Canary Islands in the Declaration of the XXVI Conference of Presidents of the RUP held in Azores.
Chinea recalls in the motion that is being debated today that the Canarian proposal is "more than well-founded" because it is the
destination with more overnight stays of the European Union, for the infrastructures of the archipelago and for the potential for the development of sustainable tourism offered by the islands. It would also be the first European agency to establish itself in an outermost region.
"Canary Islands is
more than ready to host the headquarters of the European Tourism Agency and to host events of international relevance", says the senator from ASG, who gives as an example the celebration of the Ministerial Conference on the Digital Economy of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ) to be held in December, with the participation of 38 countries.
If the application is successful, there
three islands -Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Tenerife- which aspire to host the headquarters of the new European agency.
