The first meeting has been held between the Council of Eivissa, the Council of Menorca, the Council of Mallorca, Palma City Council and the Govern de les Illes Balears (Government of the Balearic Islands) to report on the process of making road transport completely free of charge by 2023.
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The State Government included in its budget for next year an allocation of 43 million euros to subsidise 100% of the price of transport passes and multi-journey tickets for collective public land transport in the Balearic Islands. The measure is part of the current situation arising from the conflict in Ukraine, which makes it necessary to encourage the role of public transport to address the current scenario of high energy and fuel prices, which particularly affects the daily mobility of citizens, and encourage the change to a safer, more reliable, comfortable, economical and sustainable means of transport than the private vehicle.
The Balearic Government’s Department of Mobility and Housing has been working with the Ministry of Transport on the articulation of the system and the transfer of this economic contribution. Thus, the State will send the budget to the CAIB and it will be the Government which will subsequently transfer the resources to the different Councils.
As for the EMT, which is the responsibility of Palma City Council, it is planned to include the free service within the set of measures, so that all the islands’ transport systems will have the same free conditions.
The meeting also addressed the criteria for distributing the 43 million euros between the Consells, Palma City Council and the Govern, with the aim of distributing it in the general interest and according to the number of users.
It should be remembered that the distribution for Mallorca includes the entire network (EMT urban buses – intercity buses, train and metro).
The Govern took the first necessary step to comply with the procedure proposed by the State, which consisted of approving in the Consell de Govern the adhesion to the free service, that is, to make an agreement by which the Govern commits itself to apply the free service between 1 January and 31 December 2023 to the regular public transport of its competence on the island of Mallorca: interurban buses, train and metro. The Consell Insulars of Eivissa, Menorca and Formentera and the City Council of Palma will have to take a similar step for their area of competence to start the gratuitat from 1 January 2023.