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Jaume Ferrer seeks consensus of other presidents to strengthen role of the local councils

presidentsconfThe president of the Formentera Council, Jaume Ferrer, dispatched a letter to José Ramón Bauzà, president of the Balearic Islands, Maria Salom, president of the Mallorca Council, Santiago Tadeo, president of the Menorca Council, and Vicent Serra, president of the Eivissa Council, on the subject of strengthening the position of the local island councils in the next Presidents' Conference (Conferència de Presidents).

In particular, the letter references the admissibility of executive decisions on a specific set of issues: permits related to promotional images of the islands, town and country planning and a series of classified activities, all of which are matters that normally fall within the authority of the local councils.

In the letter, president Ferrer argues that “if an issue falls within the jurisdiction of the island councils, it does not appear logical that a secondary outside decision should be admitted that overwrites a given council's expressed will.” According to Ferrer, “if our respective islands are the ones responsible for developing and maintaining our own tourist image, it must be the islands themselves those that hold the grand share of influence on matters of this nature. Otherwise, we run the risk of compromising each island's tourist image.”

This last summer, Formentera bore the brunt of a series of discrepancies the origins of which lay in in decisions by entities of the Govern Balear which granted high-capacity excursion yachts permits to disembark in the town of Es Caló. For Ferrer, the crux of the issue remains “coming to an agreement at the Presidents' Conference so that such differences and conflicting positions between administrations do not reoccur, so that decision-making on issues with local remit remain within the power of the island councils.”