Jaume Ferrer's request of Roger Sales: stronger national govt presence on Formentera

visita Sales 160215This morning, island director of the national administration Roger Sales held a visit with Formentera Council president Jaume Ferrer. It was Mr Sales' first visit to the council since being appointed last month.

The encounter served as an opportunity for the two men to discuss four main issues. First, each wished the other luck in the exercise of their respective duties and expressed the hope that benefits for Formentera would shape future relations between the two administrations.

Then, after acknowledging the work of Sales' predecessor, Rafael Garcia Vila, in overseeing what President Ferrer explained had been an extremely fruitful professional relationship, Ferrer and Sales went over the list of issues up for discussion.

Ferrer asked for special effort to be made on matters related to the maritime Guàrdia Civil, such as the so-called 'party boats' and illegal boat anchoring on prairies of posidònia seaweed. The two officials also spoke about the necessity of improving local Guàrdia Civil traffic patrol units and the possibility of streamlining passport requests so that they can be obtained locally.

Increased local presence of the national administration was a request that, in varying forms, Ferrer voiced on several occasions. For issues related to social security, the tax office, immigration and a host of other extremely important – and fairly common – formalities, residents of Formentera are currently obliged to make frequent trips to Eivissa. At the encounter Ferrer called to mind the fact that, until recently, an employee of the public administration traveled to Formentera once a week to assist the local population in state-level proceedings. The local Formentera administration even provided an office space expressly for this purpose.

It was also decided that a meeting of the local safety junta would be held next month, 17 March.