The Consell de Ibiza has approved the transfer of 15 million euros to the company UTE Giref, in charge of the management of the insular landfill of Ca na Putxato pay for the investments made in recent years in the environmental area. This contribution comes from the remainder of the institution and seeks to alleviate the economic burden that fell on the municipalities of the island. In addition, the possibility of reducing the garbage bill will be explored, although the opposition parties question whether the reduction could be significant.
The agreement with the Govern and its impact on waste management
The Councilor of Finance, Salvador Losa, has highlighted that an agreement has been signed with the Balearic Government to finance the 15 million euros claimed since 2007 within the framework of the waste agreement. However, he has clarified that the Govern will make the payments in a term of 10 years, including interests, which will raise the total figure to about 17 million euros, as reported by Radio Ibiza. Losa has advanced that this agreement could generate savings for the municipalities, since it is expected that the municipalities will pay 1.2 million euros less annually to the UTE Giref as operating fee. From now on, a regulatory agreement will have to be formalized with the company to define the precise terms of the tariff reduction based on technical criteria and tons of waste generated. “We cannot yet specify how much the garbage bill will be reduced, whether it will be one euro or five, we will evaluate it according to the volume of waste,” Losa stressed.
The opposition questions the management of the Consell
From the opposition, Josep Marí Ribas, spokesman for the PSOE, criticized the Consell’s decision to use its cash surplus for this transfer. “The Consell is playing the role of a bank without need, when it could have managed these funds as they were sent by the Govern”, he said, suggesting that these resources could have been destined to more urgent and necessary projects for the island. For his part, the councilor of Unidas Podemos, Óscar Rodríguez, has accused the Partido Popular of using the new state waste law as an excuse to justify the increases in the bill. “They hide behind this regulation, when the increases should have been made gradually in previous years,” commented Rodríguez. Marí Ribas also recalled that the European directive that obliges member states to review their waste management policies was promoted at the time by Miguel Arias Cañete, a former PP minister. “Now they blame the central government, but this is a regulation that the PP supported from its origin in Europe,” added the socialist spokesman.
Legal uncertainty and the future of the agreement
Losa has admitted that the application of the European directive has generated legal uncertainty for both the administration and the companies, as reported by Cadena Ser. “This situation has generated insecurity in management, and we hope that with this transfer some of that uncertainty will be mitigated,” he said. The agreement, in addition to guaranteeing economic relief for the municipalities, will make it possible to define the criteria for waste management on the island for the coming years. However, it remains to be seen whether the reduction in the garbage bill will be significant enough to satisfy citizens and opposition groups.
