Valencia asks the Government for tax incentives for being the European Green Capital and support for the Albufera as a Biosphere Reserve

The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, asked the Spanish Government this Thursday that the European Green Capital that the city will hold during 2024 be declared an Exceptional Event of Public Interest for two years, as Vitoria was when it received this recognition, so that the companies get involved in this project. Other objectives that will guide this capital, according to the councilor, are for the Albufera to be declared a biosphere reserve before UNESCO, and to go from seven meters of green area per citizen to 10 by 2030.

Catalá has participated in the inauguration this Thursday of the European Green Capital 2024 at the Palau de la Música in Valencia, where it has taken the baton from Tallinn, capital of Estonia, to start a year with more than 400 activities to transform the city and leave mark on future generations. Councilors from all parties, except Vox, took a family photo at the beginning of the event on a green mural set up for the conference. At the doors of the Palau, members of the City-Port Commission have displayed a banner protesting against the construction of the north dock of the port of Valencia.

The first mayor has insisted on demanding these incentives, also at the fiscal level, “so that companies get involved in this project and encourage public-private collaboration. Vitoria, the first Spanish city to be Green Capital, achieved it, and we demand the same consideration,” she assured.

The local government has requested the support of the Spanish Executive to ensure that the Albufera natural park is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, which would protect the quantity and quality of water that the lake needs. “It is an initiative in which the city council and the Generalitat have already begun to work,” said Catalá.

“Our objective is to convert the Green Capital into a lever for the improvement and transformation of the city so that it leaves its mark on future generations. To do so, we are going to incorporate a table of indicators to measure progress towards the proposed objectives, with a measurement tool. public data collection that provides evidence about the transformations that are taking place in Valencia,” the first mayor announced. According to Catalá, the axes of the European Green Capital will be science, centrality, “without polarization or radicalism”, with the contributions of experts and objective indicators.

In a statement, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, has assured that Valencia “has earned” the title of European Green Capital for 2024 thanks to its policies and has learned from the lessons from the past,” he says. “For many decades, the city has been driven by a bold civic movement that supports genuine change,” highlights the European commissioner, who believes that “people are Valencia's asset.”

In the opinion of the European Commissioner, Valencia effectively combines responses to environmental challenges with social ones, highlighted the Community Executive. “97% of the city's inhabitants live less than 300 meters from urban green areas. The city also has a demonstrated commitment to improving air quality and restoring natural ecosystems, such as the dune ecosystems and wetlands of La Devesa,” he stated from Brussels. And, in addition, the city also stimulates healthier, sustainable and inclusive food production through its Neighborhood and Food program.

More participation

The spokesperson for Compromís in the City Council, Papi Robles, congratulated herself on the capital status and said that it is “a recognition of the entire Valencian society, of the city model that we from Compromís and the Government of Joan Ribó have always promoted.” Robles has regretted that the municipal government of PP and Vox has not given space to the participation of either the entities or the opposition groups in the preparation of the activities that make up the Capital program. “Everything has been done behind closed doors, the citizen participation body that is the Environment Council has not been convened and the municipal groups have only been convened on one occasion in the European Green Capital Monitoring Commission a few years ago. weeks with the program done.

According to Robles, “the European Green Capital is not a question of events, photos or Catalá's personal brand, this has to do with the city model. And the green capital model goes very against cramming this city with cars, pushing back the renaturalization of some areas and paralyzing pedestrianization” in the capital. Former mayor Joan Ribó has regretted that throughout his speech Catalá has avoided referring to the bicycle, a sustainable means of transport.

The spokesperson for the Municipal Socialist Group, Sandra Gómez, has regretted that Catalá “cannot see beyond its own partisan limits and the inauguration of the Green Capital coincides with the reversal of approved projects that were the lever to achieve this recognition.” “In the end I am absolutely convinced that if she had been the mayor in the previous term, Valencia would not be able to inaugurate the European Green Capital today,” she stated.