At the end of April, the Island Council of Tenerife adopted a shock plan for employment and social emergency, to respond to the Covid-19 threat. With the first package of 148,740,537.42 million euros, the Cabildo de Tenerife aims to recover, maintain, and improve the services in one of the first places in Europe, hit by the new coronavirus.
The emergency plan presented by President of Tenerife Council Pedro Martin focuses its first measures on five priority areas: social domain, employment support, primary sector, investments and public works and administrative simplification. According to Martin, quoted by Tenerife.es, the primary objective of his institution, even before the declaration of the state of emergency, has been to get Tenerife going, despite the lockdown.
Five lines of priority action to get Tenerife going
The plan thus previews a financial injection of 18,895,516.32 euros to strengthen the social area, through various actions. 4.5 million euros of this amount will be allocated to the municipalities for the most vulnerable through social emergency aid, to address homelessness, to specialized domicile and the reinforcement of the reserve lists of social workers.
Investment in social policies of the island and support for non-governmental organizations will be consolidated, with another 6,879,778 euros. Support for the associative fabric, citizen participation and collaboration will amount to 532,000 euros, while the reinforcement of the gender violence network and support to protect people from LGTBI + groups will be funded with 215,000 euros.
Finally, there will be an increase in the equal opportunities’ scholarships for students and more funds to help reduce the digital divide among children and the youth, and for support to education against gender violence.
When it comes to employment and socio-economic development, the Council has earmarked 32,626,559 euros. Most of them are destined for the preservation of employment, including for the self-employed and the micro-enterprises, which are the most vulnerable to the crisis.
Paid training, support to the cultural sector, sports, artisans and the fashion sectors are also previewed under this line of action.
The primary sector will also receive close to 5 million euros, the largest part of which (2,651,325 euros) will go for agriculture, to cover the damages of February’s windstorms aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 2,066,000 euros will go for the livestock sector and 202,500 euros to incentives to fishermen.
The investment and public works will receive the significant 87,709,578.55 euros – for sustainable development, the completion of hydraulic and sanitation works, or those of the Arico environmental complex and public infrastructure. Respectively, there will be a budget of 14,120,357 euros for mobility and maintenance works.
Last but not least, the shock plan will focus on administrative simplification and improvement of public services – 4,589,058.55 euros will be earmarked for the optimization of human resources and technical assistance to municipalities and for improving the island network of telecommunications.
As the Council of Tenerife announced on Monday, President Pedro Martín has presented representatives of the municipalities with the plan and invited them to discuss it.
De-escalation of the lockdown restrictions in Spain
Tenerife island first clashed with the coronavirus back in February when one of its hotels went on lockdown after an Italian couple tested positive for Covid-19. Luckily, as the Spanish government began lifting the lockdown restrictions, things are beginning to look up for Tenerife, as well.
The Health Minister of Spain promised a lockdown de-escalation province by province. Should the largest of the Canary islands meet the requirements, Tenerife could move to phase one of the lockdown de-escalations on 11 May and see its hotels and accommodation facilities reopened
