The President of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, has defended the historic opportunity that the arrival of European funds represents in the transformation of the economic model of the Balearic Islands, recalling that this is a task that is being carried out based on “working together to build a more environmentally and economically sustainable and socially cohesive autonomous community with clear, courageous and committed policies”.
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Armengol said these words during her participation in the opening of the forum “The opportunity of the Next Generation for tourism recovery”, which was held at the Chamber of Commerce of Mallorca. During her speech, she recalled that the pandemic has accelerated the transformation towards this new model “in all senses, such as digitalisation, innovation, the knowledge economy, the green economy and quality tourism”, highlighting the joint work that has been carried out with the social agents and the rest of the institutions. “We have set an example, being one of the territories with the lowest mortality rates, leading economic growth and leading job creation,” said the president, who also called for joint work in approaching this new crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The President encouraged companies to present projects “committed to the road map that we have drawn up together” to be financed with European funds, and called for joint work between the public and private sectors to make this transformation of the model possible. In this sense, he recalled that the Balearic Islands have demonstrated efficiency in the execution of European funds. “We have capacity and solvency”, she said, and recalled that “we are the first autonomous community in the execution of ERDF funds and in 2021 we will be executing React EU funds”.
The President also highlighted the processing of the new tourism law, which “for the first time focuses on the positive impact of tourism, which we want to be regenerative for the Islands”. She added that tourism can also help environmental sustainability, recalling measures included in the law to move towards circularity. He also stressed that the new law “puts the workers in the sector at the centre, because they are also responsible for the success of our autonomous community” and recalled that the new law is accompanied by 60 million euros in European funds to make this transformation possible.
The forum on European funds is organised by Disset Consultors and also includes the participation of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the former President of the Spanish government, José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero.