The President of the Chamber Joseph Borg, who is also the President of INSULEUR, and the CEO of the Chamber, Daniel Borg, who is also a member of the technical committee of INSULEUR participated in Mallorca on the 22nd February in the CPMR (Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions) Islands Commission General Assembly. Joseph Borg intervened as a panelist during the energy and transport session which discussed “decarbonization, FIT for 55, State Aid (De Minimis Rule) challenges and opportunities for islands”. The President of INSULEUR highlighted the negative effect that the revocation of the tax exemption on aviation and maritime fuel will have on islands. Apart from increasing the cost of travelling to islands it will limit the freedom of movement of people diminishing social cohesion which is an underlying unifying factor on which the EU is built. The proposed taxation will not be accelerating the shift to new technologies given that the industry is still lagging behind. To this end incentives should be directed to assist the aviation and maritime sector to shift to new more sustainable forms of energy including specific research funds under the Horizon 2020 programme. The revocation of the tax exemption on aviation and maritime fuel will fuel further regional disparities between islands and the mainland, without addressing the structural actions required in the airline and maritime industries. Joseph Borg also said that within this context islands need to help each other by also sharing best practices.
The agenda for the meeting can be downloaded from here.
The speech by the President of the Chamber Joseph Borg, can be downloaded from here.
