This week we’re focussing on a breaking news story that could have serious consequences for many of us living on Tenerife.
Tenerife Goes Back to the Peseta & Comes Out of Europe
The shock news for 2012 is that Tenerife will be swapping the euro for the peseta and handing back its European passport in the new year.
With grumblings about the downfall of the euro and Britain’s stubborn stance threatening the EEC, the Canary Island Government has taken the surprising and controversial move of invoking the same law which has allowed Tenerife to enjoy duty free status to withdraw from Europe and re-instate the peseta.
In an ambitious campaign called Keeping Tenerife Canarian the move will improve the financial and employability status of native islanders but will have serious implications for other European nationals currently residing on Tenerife.
The withdrawal from Europe means that other Europeans will no longer have right of residence or be able to own homes on Tenerife. This doesn’t apply to Spanish residents as sources in the government have said that “We need to keep Spain sweet so that we can continue to benefit from European funding accessed via mainland Spain”. Some of the main changes to affect European residents are as follows.
- As non-Spanish, residents won’t be legally able to own their homes so mortgage payments will become classed as rent payments.
- Those who own their home outright will receive a basic monthly allowance from the government until the value of the house (decided by government inspectors) is repaid. It’s thought this could take up to 40 years.
- Residents without proof of work status can only stay on Tenerife for periods of up to 3 months. This applies to pensioners who will also find that they are no longer entitled to EU subsidies on prescription charges and medical costs.
- Current non-Spanish European residents will lose all rights to discounted travel and free health care.
Similarly Canarian residents will find their status in other European countries affected. But as the spokesperson pointed out, “Most Canarios only travel to mainland Spain and the other Canary Islands, so it won’t affect them in a negative way.”
It’s claimed Keep Tenerife Canarian will revitalise the local economy at a time when some Ayuntamientos (Town Halls) are struggling to pay their bills even though it will be at the expense of foreign residents, some of whom have lived on the island for decades.
Another aspect to the campaign is that for all businesses employing staff, a minimum of 50% of the workforce must be Canarian born with Canarian parents.
A spokesperson who wished to remain anonymous said that the campaign was devised after statistics about residency on Tenerife shocked the island’s nationalist politicians by revealing that in some areas of south Tenerife up to 75% of residents were non-Canarios. He claimed that the move was partly motivated by pre-empting a scenario where UK residents woke from their political apathy and used their voting power to achieve something that Admiral Nelson couldn’t ““ to conquer Tenerife.
Eager to set plans in motion, the Keep Tenerife Canarian campaign will be implemented from today, the 28th December 2011.
