Canary Islands, April 20, 2020.- The President of the Canary Islands Parliament and the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE), Gustavo Matos, met this Monday with the two Canarian MEPs, Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D Group) and Gabriel Mato (EPP Group), together with the spokespersons of each political group in the European Affairs Committee of the Canary Islands Parliament and its president, to analyze the situation of the Canary Islands on the European stage as a consequence of The health, socioeconomic and political crisis that is opening up due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the meeting, they discussed Europe’s response to this situation, the role that the outermost regions and the lines of European policy in relation to the Canary Islands should play. “We have agreed on the need for the European Union to consider the specialties of our archipelago in order to overcome this crisis,” said Matos after the meeting.
“The position in favor of a commitment to work for the Canary Islands ‘specificities to be recognized in this situation is unanimous,” said Matos, who recalled the islands’ peculiarities due to their strong economic dependence on tourism and their special connectivity characteristics.
“As an outermost region, the Canary Islands not only need that status to be maintained at all levels, but also to be strengthened at this time,” stressed the president of the Chamber and CALRE. The European budget, the possibility of issuing Eurobonds, the future financing of European policies or the recovery of the most essential values of the European project to fairly combat this crisis were other issues that were discussed at the meeting.
The members of the European Affairs Commission that participated in the meeting were Carlos Ester as president, Ventura del Carmen Rodríguez (Socialist Group), Juan Manuel García Ramos (Nationalist Group), Juan Manuel García Casañas (Popular Group), Sandra Domínguez (Nueva Canarias Group), Manuel Marrero (Sí Podemos Canarias Group), Jesús Ramos (ASG Group) and Ricardo Fernández de la Puente (Mixed Parliamentary Group). Also, Esther González and Luz Reverón intervened as members of the management group of the Parliament of the Canary Islands.