The Consell de Eivissa and the shipping companies agreed to start technical meetings to implement the Law without harming the maritime transport service, which has been recognised as “essential” and ‘strategic’ for our island

The president of the Consell de Eivissa, Vicent Marí, Vice President Mariano Juan and the island’s Director of Transport, Roberto Algaba, met this morning with the commercial shipping companies that offer regular transport services on Eivissa to discuss the implementation of the law that will regulate the entry of vehicles onto the island from next June. Faced with the opposition of the businessmen, who are against the application of the Vehicle Regulation Law, the president explained to them that this law ‘does not seek to blame anyone in particular for the saturation problems experienced by the island of Eivissa during the high season months’, but that it aims ‘that all of us who have some responsibility find a solution to guarantee a sustainable, social and economic future’.

In this sense, the president explained that together with this law, the Consell de Eivissa has already initiated a series of measures, within its competencies, aimed at reducing the negative effects of the tourist industry, such as the future final approval of the PTI, which prohibits, in general terms, the acquisition of new tourist housing licences on rural land; the drafting of the Plans of Intervention in Tourist Areas (PIAT); the entry into operation of the new bus transport contract, scheduled for this year and, above all, the shock plan to fight against intrusion, which will invest more than 20 million euros over the next few years. ‘We have a problem, and we are tackling it from different points of view: doing nothing, as some propose, is not an option’, concluded Vicent Marí.

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Vicent Marí: ‘The Law on the regulation of vehicles does not look for culprits, it looks for solutions’

For all these reasons, and after the shipping companies raised their disagreements with the quota recently approved in Plenary, considering it ‘extremely restrictive’, as well as the technical computer system that is intended to be integrated into the process of selling travel tickets on the shipping companies’ own websites, it has been agreed to establish a framework for technical dialogue between the shipping companies and to reach an agreement that will allow the Law to be applied with guarantees from June and that, at the same time, the possible existence of computer problems in the management system for the sale of travel tickets will be resolved, it has been agreed to establish a framework for technical dialogue between the shipping companies and to reach an agreement that will allow the Law to be applied with guarantees from June and that, at the same time, the possible existence of computer problems in the system for managing quotas and fees will not result in direct economic damage to passengers and companies. The shipping companies have offered the Consell to provide the millimetric data of entries and exits to be able to measure in real time the influx of vehicles, even before the application of the Law begins on 1 June.

For all these reasons, President Vicent Marí concluded that ‘as the shipping companies have explained to us, we recognise the fundamental role of maritime connections on our island, as a fundamental and necessary service in terms of tourism, business, goods and territorial cohesion’ and he has opted to ‘integrate all the actors in the implementation of this law which, far from being a voice today, represents an opportunity to maintain a future Eivissa which, indirectly, will benefit everyone, including these businessmen, in the long term’.