Thursday, September 14, 2006
Canary Island Parliament Approves Reform of Statute, Without Opposition Support
After almost seven and a half hours of tedious debate, the Parliament of the Canary Islands yesterday approved the project for the reform of the Statute of Autonomy, despite lack of support from the opposition Popular Party (PP).
The reform of the Statute of Autonomy - the highest set of rules for the archipelago - will be delivered to the President of the Spanish Congress today.
The text which was approved - backed by 60% of the Canarian Parliament; with 36 votes for, 15 against and five abstentions - coincided exactly with that which was proposed back in June and with none of the modifications proposed by various groups since.
The Popular Party's objection is on the basis, they say, that the "preamble falsifies history" and for being unconstitutional in many aspects. They also say it deepens the "calling effect" on immigrants, because it ties the Canary Islands as being part of Africa and bases history upon a supposed pact between African ancestors and the then Crown of Castille.
The document has to pass through both the Congress and the Senate and the text could be modified in the Cortes, but in its current form the new Statute of Autonomy includes the interior waters of the archipelago within the Autonomous Community and establishes the requirement that the State has to take distance and isolation into account in the application of its policies and legislation.
Other important changes are over future reforms of fiscal and economic policy and possible changes to the electoral system.
As well as the Statute of Autonomy, the Canarian Parliament also approved, again with opposition from the Popular Party, a proposition before the General Cortes for Transferencias Complementarias de Canarias (Complementary Transfers). This text, which accompanies the Statute, specifies items to be transferred to the Autonomous Community and are those that, basically, need to be done differently here due to distance, isolation and fiscal reasons.
Under this document, the Canaries reclaim the management of the ports and airports, control over residence permits and work permits of non-EU foreigners, of coasts and beaches, the radio airwaves and telecommunications.
El Parlamento de Canarias aprueba la reforma del Estatuto sin el apoyo del PP
