Pradales and Clavijo call for a timely and exceptional distribution of migrant minors depending on the regional situation

The XXVII Conference of Presidents, held on Friday in Santander, concluded without specific agreements after five hours of interventions by the head of the executive, Pedro Sánchez, and the regional presidents on housing, immigration, health care and regional financing.

The head of the Spanish government left the Magdalen Palace before 4 p.m. The regional presidents began making their assessments to the press, most in disappointed tones and criticizing the lack of advance planning for the meeting.

During the conference, the Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, and the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, put a proposal on the table to their counterparts to carry out an extraordinary distribution of minor migrants that would improve the situation of the most saturated autonomous communities relieve. , based on five objective indicators.

Clavijo has already put forward some details of this proposal in Ajuria Enea on Thursday, after the meeting he held with Pradales to coordinate some common positions for this Conference of Presidents, especially regarding immigration.

The Lehendakari and the Canary President agree that “the challenge” posed by the continued arrival of minors in Cayuco to Spain exceeds the response capacity of a single community and should not be dealt with alone or with the autonomy of the first arrival addressed (case of the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, at the moment), nor by any other where a large number of boys are concentrated due to a border effect (the situation Euskadi experiences with France).

Clavijo and Pradales demand that the state provide the necessary funds to cover the shelter, but they emphasize that “the response to this challenge is not only a matter of the distribution of resources, but also of social and political cohesion, which requires that all autonomous communities, according to their capabilities, contribute to the solution”.

“Applying the principle of territorial solidarity not only strengthens the welfare state, but also strengthens the commitment to human rights and compliance with international obligations, guaranteeing the protection and well-being of migrant minors arriving in the Spanish state,” argue their two governments. , in a document distributed on Friday.

As political negotiations to provide a substantive solution based on immigration reform have stalled, Pradales and Clavijo call for a punctual and exceptional delivery must be carried out within a period of three months, based on five criteria proposed by the Canary Islands and which the Basque Country endorses:

1) Total population of each community

2) Foster care, understood as the average number of foster minors per 100,000 inhabitants in the past six months.

3) Gross domestic product per capita.

4) Unemployment rate.

5) And solidarity, defined by the number of minors welcomed over the past five years.

Once this extraordinary division is made, the Canary Islands and Euskadi believe that this should be the case Sector conference for children one that ‘promotes a calmer debate on the coefficients that will have to be applied in the future to ensure equality in the allocation of responsibilities on the basis of objective factors, allowing each territory to bear the burden proportionate to its economic, social and human capabilities.’

During a subsequent press conference, the head of the Basque executive assured that the proposal has not received “a frontal rejection” that “opens a thread of hope.”

As he explained, the proposal “has raised expectations and has been well received by regional presidents of different parties.” This good reception has been given, as specified, by the central government and the executives of Catalonia and Aragon.

During the meeting, the Lehendakari proposed to consider the Basque Country as a ‘northern border’ and therefore have more resources to provide dignified care to migrants, but he has not received any response from the Spanish executive, something that is partly due to the fact that no ‘kitchen work’ took place prior to the conference.

Pradales transfers 22 proposals to Sánchez

The Lehendakari also detailed that he has transferred a total of 22 proposals to Sánchez and his counterparts to improve housing policies, immigration management, the shortage of health workers and the distribution of European funds.

Among other proposals, Pradales has called for urgent, non-refundable public investments to build sheltered rental public housing, mobilize public land, raise the age of voluntary medical practice to 72 in primary care, and transfer to Euskadi. the accreditation capacity of the units and teaching centers for resident doctors and improving the MIR system to avoid abandoned or vacant places.

Regional debt forgiveness

Sánchez has announced that he will reconvene the communities in January to promote the state’s takeover of part of the debts of the communities of the common regime (all except Euskadi and Navarre).

In this context, Pradales has asked the President of the Spanish Government that if this measure is applied, Euskadi will be compensated through quotas, because the Basque Autonomous Community “contributes through the quotas to the burdens assumed by the State in terms of debts “.

“So if there is a general cancellation of regional debts, we must analyze how that could affect the Economic Agreement system itself,” he asserted, showing his desire to explore what will be proposed.