ASG is committed to greater control to ensure compliance with the Brexit agreement with the Canary Islands
Jesús Ramos highlights the importance of monitoring essential aspects to guarantee the well-being of the Canary Islanders who reside in the United Kingdom and the British who live in the Archipelago.
It underlines the need to foster “cordial and constructive” relations with the United Kingdom, with the aim of beginning the recovery of this key market for tourism, once tourist flows are reopened.
The deputy spokesperson for the Gomera Socialist Group (ASG) Parliamentary Group, Jesús Ramos, highlighted this Friday, in the parliamentary committee on European Affairs and Foreign Action, the importance of ensuring compliance with the agreement reached between Spain and the United Kingdom regarding Brexit. In this way, it was considered appropriate that periodic assessments be carried out to study the degree of compliance in different areas on which the future of the Islands and the well-being of the Canary Islanders residing in the United Kingdom, as well as the British living in the Canary Islands, depend.
“It is important that we know, among other issues, if the clauses of the agreement are being respected and if we are having operational problems that were not estimated at the time of signing it,” he indicated. In this sense, he highlighted the importance of monitoring imports, essential for many Canary Islands industries, to check if they are experiencing delays in receiving raw materials or machinery. He also alluded to the coexistence of the Canarians who reside in the United Kingdom and the British who live in the Islands, with the aim of ensuring that they do not encounter any type of obstacle when traveling, working or accessing essential services.
He recalled that the agreement allows many of the social services to be maintained for Britons residing in the Islands and Canary Islanders who are in the United Kingdom, since a visa is only necessary for stays longer than 90 days, so he hoped that this situation will be maintained and that the Government will be vigilant to ensure that this is the case.
Although, Ramos estimated that the agreement reached facilitates bilateral relations very similar to those before Brexit, he stressed the need for, once the pandemic is overcome, these communications between both countries to be as “fluid, cordial and constructive” as possible so that as the vaccine advances and international tourism channels are opened again, we will recover the visit of the British to the Islands, “since it is one of the main source markets on which the good progress largely depends. of the sector in the Canary Islands”.
Primary sector
The regional deputy highlighted the importance of maintaining a zero-tariff policy, "since it means that the Canarian products that we export mainly from the countryside will have guarantees for the maintenance of this distribution in the United Kingdom, even though they have to go through customs both upon entry and exit." "In addition, it is important to highlight that the European agreement provides for aid of up to 5,000 million euros for the maintenance of sectors that may be affected, including the specificities of POSEI," he said.
