Just three days after the maritime strikes which left four victims in Tenerife and one in Lanzarote, it is still not clear who owns these assets. competition to ensure safety on the beaches of the Canary Islands. The Santiago del Teide City Council, the Cabildo de Tenerife and the regional government do not agree on who should carry out coastal surveillance.
Despite these arguments, the article 26 of the Law on the basics of local regime It envisages possible collaboration between municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants and supranational institutions in the event that assistance is necessary in terms of civil protection. However, the mayor of Tenerife South, Emilio Navarro (PP), accused the Cabildo of escape responsibilityalthough this administration denied its responsibility, attributing it to the government of the Canary Islands, which, in turn, referred it to the municipal councils, according to the newspaper The day.
And in 2018, the regional executive approved the so-called “beach decree”, which establishes that these powers belong to the municipalities. However, the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (Fecam) appealed this conviction. Then, the Supreme Court estimated, in 2023, that “Civil protection does not correspond to town halls of less than 20,000 inhabitants”, as Navarro detailed to the same media.
Taking into account the resolution, the councilor points out that the tasks of coastal surveillance continue to correspond to the Government of the Canary Islands, delegated to the Cabildo, so the issue seems to remain unresolved due to an alleged gap in the regulations. THE regional advisor for territorial policy, Manuel Miranda, by ensuring that a new decree is in preparation to overcome the vagueness of powers.
The death of these four tourists in Tenerife led Navarro to a compromising situation, as he himself admitted. “On these issues, what everyone does is avoiding responsibilities or getting out of the way“, he explained. Regarding the actions of the Consistory that he leads, he also explained that fences and seals are usually installed, but that “people usually use sharp objects to cut and access them.” Therefore, all the measures that are implemented, with regard to his administration, are intended for “public service, security and protection of people”, he explained to the same media.
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