Balearics urge Spain’s government to speed up talks with EU to allow safe reopening of Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca airports to international flights

BALEARIC president Francina Armengol has urged Spain’s central government to ‘speed up meetings and agreements’ with the European Union to pave the way for the safe reopening of the islands’ airports to international flights ‘as soon as possible.’

Commenting at a press briefing following Sunday’s weekly videoconference meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the other heads of the country’s regional administrations, Armengol stressed the Balearic economy depends “a lot” on the decisions on movement adopted in the countries which represent the islands’ main tourism markets, and especially the UK and Germany.

She insisted on the need for coordinated actions at European level on health controls at airports. Also on the possibility of giving priority to certain routes according to how the lifting of lockdown restrictions develops in each country or region.

“We need to open the Balearics’ airport as soon as possible, but safely,” the Balearic President emphasised.

She also pointed out that movement between provinces and the control of borders according to how de-escalation progresses, again vitally important for the islands’ economy, is down to the national government.

Referring to the €16,000 million State special fund to help autonomous communities recover from the coronavirus crisis, Armengol said that it was “a first step.”

But she has called on Pedro Sanchez to base the allocation of the assistance on the level of the impact in each region, “based on criteria not only of expenditure on health assistance, but also understanding the economic and social hit the crisis has caused in territories like ours.”

She claims the Balearics require “special treatment,” and “need more resources to tackle the reality of our economy’s sacrifice.”