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First payment approved
The Canary Islands regional government has approved the first payment of €253 million in compensation arising from the tourism moratoriums, the Minister for Territorial Policy, Manuel Miranda, has announced. The total value of the indemnities has been calculated at €316 million, with interest on this initial payment adding a further €7.5 million, meaning the final figure could reach approximately €326 million.
Speaking during a parliamentary session requested by Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC), Miranda highlighted that the amount represents a significant reduction compared with the €652 million originally claimed by litigating hoteliers and business owners.
A complex legal legacy
Miranda stressed that the current administration neither created the problem nor issued the court rulings that gave rise to these compensations as a result of the so-called moratorium – which, he noted, is not a single piece of legislation but rather a series of decisions sharing a common objective: to curb tourism development.
He traced the origins back to two decrees approved in 2001, which were subsequently annulled by the courts, together with the urgent measures law enacted while the planning guidelines were being drawn up. It was during that transitional period, he explained, that the first legal battles began. Then, amid considerable instability, the 2009 urgent measures law introduced the possibility of declassifying buildable land to rural status in exchange for compensation – a provision that led to 54 claims, of which the Supreme Court upheld 36.
Notably, however, it was the government of Paulino Rivero (Coalición Canaria) that, in that same year, introduced changes to the tourism moratorium approved in the previous legislature, thereby opening the door to the judicial claims from hoteliers that subsequently materialised in their dozens.
Negotiations bear fruit
Miranda emphasised that the original amount claimed, including interest, stood at nearly €1 billion. Through a period of negotiation that has culminated in a series of out-of-court settlements, however, a far lower figure has been agreed – one that, as a welcome side effect, brings the claimants’ legal actions to a close.
The minister acknowledged that the current executive has had to shoulder the consequences of earlier decisions, which he considered to have been taken in good faith and in line with public demands to place limits on growth. That said, he insisted that moratoriums “need to be done properly”, citing Fuerteventura as a cautionary example, where between 2001 and 2003 “many beds were declassified” – including, he recalled, at Majanicho, where the decision was taken at a plenary session at six in the morning “with the environmentalists in their pyjamas, and it was forced through regardless”.
Opposition criticism
Luis Campos (NC) demanded access to all documentation relating to the settlements, describing them as one of the most significant decisions of the current legislature. He said he wanted to “dismantle the lies, deceit and falsehoods” suggesting that everything stems from the 2001 and 2003 moratorium laws – arguing, on the contrary, that all the claims derive from Article 17.1 of Law 6/2009. Campos expressed serious doubts as to whether the Canary Islands government had “fought like a wild boar, like a titan” in defending the collective interest during the negotiations. Indeed, he went further, calling the outcome “an absolute surrender”, because “you give the claimants everything they ask for and leave them with the same urban development rights they had before”.
In a similar vein, Nayra Alemán (PSOE) complained that, in addition to paying compensation, “the developer is allowed to build on that land, so we pay twice over”. Alemán asked how many new beds these judicial agreements could pave the way for, and accused the minister of contradiction in speaking of sustainability and limits while “opening the door to more hotels and more tourists”.
In response, Miranda argued that had the territorial aspect been left out of the out-of-court settlements, it would have created a serious problem for the island councils (cabildos), which would have been obliged to undertake 36 modifications to reclassify the land over five years – only to reclassify it back again immediately afterwards.
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