Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain), Nov 18 (EFE) .- The eruption of the La Palma volcano, in the Spanish Canary Islands, which celebrates two months this Friday, has caused between 550 and 700 million euros of economic damage, has informed the president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres.
Torres, after intervening telematically in the Annual Conference of the Outermost Regions (RUP) of the European Union, has indicated in statements to the media that for La Palma to receive solidarity funds from the European Union damage is required above 1% of GDP, about 430 million.
Therefore, the Canary Islands may benefit from these funds, because, according to studies prepared by the Government of the Canary Islands, the damage on La Palma is quantified between 550 and 700 million, an amount that is above 1% of GDP.
The president has detailed that most of his speech has been dedicated to claiming that European solidarity funds for the island of La Palma “be the maximum possible.”
He has specified that the Canary Islands do not have to receive 500 million euros from the European Union, which is the global amount of these funds to be distributed according to “the tragedies” that take place in the territory of the European Union.
In this context, it has advanced, the Government of the Canary Islands will present its proposal to try to ensure that La Palma receives “the maximum possible” from this European grant to rebuild the island.
He has indicated that the Canary Islands have received “unanimous” support in this regard from the rest of the ORs, while he has detailed that there is a period of twelve weeks to present the request for aid once the catastrophe begins.
“Nobody thought that today and after 60 days the volcano continues to erupt,” said Torres, who added that therefore the economic estimate of damage is provisional.
He has advanced that tomorrow he will travel to La Palma with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, to whom he will transfer this amount of economic damages.
