Councillor Mir and Director-General Castro inaugurated the series of lectures.
The Catalan Minister of the Environment and Territory, Miquel Mir, and the Director-General of Coordination, Relations with Parliament, Rights and Diversity, Isabel Castro, inaugurated the Autonomy, Coasts and Coast, jointly organised by the Directorate General of Territory and Landscape and the Government’s Institute of Autonomous Studies, together with the Institute of Self-Government Studies of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

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The conference is mainly aimed at technical staff from public administrations, lawyers, university lecturers and professionals from the world of the judiciary and the legal profession. Over two days, the speakers will discuss the issue of the State’s coastal jurisdiction, as well as the challenges facing its management in the face of the climate emergency.

Mir explained that this conference “comes at a key moment, not only for the Balearic Islands but for all coastal areas in Spain, as we cannot waste any more time adapting our coasts to climate change”. “Comprehensive and close management is the best way to mitigate the consequences of rising sea levels, but also to recover and conserve them in the face of other adversities,” explained the minister, who added that “the Balearic Islands need to make the transfer of powers effective as soon as possible and, above all, that this transfer is well endowed technically and economically”.

For his part, Castro assured that “for the Balearic Islands, the planning and management of the coastline is an area of public responsibility of vital importance for its progress”, which is why he stressed the importance of “designing and applying coherent and integrated public policies, which pay attention to various perspectives such as the territorial and urban planning model, the protection of natural resources and the landscape, and the fight against the effects of climate change, among others”. Castro reminded the audience that “the Government has been working hard for some time to reach a good agreement on the transfer of coastal powers to the autonomous community, which we hope to receive this year”.

The presentations will analyse the complexity of the current framework of powers over coastal management in the Balearic Islands, as well as the coordinates set out in the Statute for the Government to take over management. A representative of the Ministry of Territorial Policy will explain the State’s view of the competences of the Coast and several cases that affect autonomous communities such as the Canary Islands (which, like the Balearic Islands, is also currently negotiating the transfer of these competences), Galicia and Catalonia will be analysed. Finally, the challenges arising from the climate emergency will be presented, as well as the necessary bases for integrated coastal management.

The interest aroused by the conferences held in Palma has led to similar ones being organised next autumn in Girona by the Institut d’Estudis d’Autogovern de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Institute of Self-Government Studies of the Government of Catalonia).