The Canary Islands face ongoing tension between regional partners and the central government over how gas installations should be managed on the islands. Although all parties profess commitment to renewable energy, decarbonisation, and moving away from gas, recent royal decrees addressing wartime disruptions have sparked a debate about electricity pricing in Ukraine and beyond. The question now is whether regasification facilities on the islands should be liberalised, given the broader regional and national energy strategy.
Two regional coalition partners would prefer to lead the decision on whether the Canary Islands open to the gas market, especially as Madrid emphasizes the importance of maintaining liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity. While the EU as a whole grapples with supply constraints stemming from Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the focus remains on non-Russian markets. The PSOE, the major partner in the regional government, maintains that Pedro Sánchez’s administration made clear that the Canary Islands will decide, within their energy planning jurisdiction, whether to permit regasification facilities on their land.
The dispute centers on a royal decree issued by Congress on April 28 aimed at cushioning the Ukraine crisis effects, which introduced a fourth final provision that would liberalise gas in the Islands without prior government notice. Regasification plants, primarily used to feed power generation, could also support ports and ships. The measure drew explicit opposition from all parties within the pact, and the State requested a correction.
The central government and the Canary Islands government later agreed on a revised text, but the changes did not satisfy the two main coalition partners. The Ecological Transition Ministries, once the source of the initiative, retreated in what has been described as a reluctance to pursue an Iberian exception for electricity price regulation and to reduce costs. A new provision stated that the prior decree on regasification in the Canary Islands would be implemented in line with energy transition goals set by the General State Administration for the Canary Islands and the autonomous community, within their respective jurisdictions.
In the case of the crisis ordinance passed by Congress as a bill, amendments could have modified the liberalisation provisions. This is what NC intends to pursue by adding a clause to strike the controversial fourth provision. Yet in the decree law on lowering electricity prices, which included the proposed gas-plant fix for the Canary Islands, no refunds have been processed. According to NC attorney Pedro Quevedo, even if the pressure for change succeeded, the effect remains zero because another already approved decree reverts the issue to its original state. The bill presenting that amendment was effectively blocked in Congress through a persistent extension of the amendment submission deadline. Negotiations with the Government and the Canary Islands government will again consider this topic, and Quevedo emphasizes that the so-called solution is not acceptable. He voted against the approval of the decree to lower electricity prices on June 9 for precisely that reason.
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The struggle surrounding the so-called Pact of Flowers appears to hinge on how the text is interpreted: whether the State has corrected the liberalisation of gas on the Islands. It is clear from the wording that the Canary Islands can shape their energy plans and decide whether to remove permits for regasification plants mentioned earlier. Antonio Olivera, Deputy President of the Presidency, notes that the Canary Islands have the ability to block a contrary decision by the central government if it conflicts with regional energy planning.
The socialist faction of the government argues that both administrations must always account for each other’s jurisdiction, reducing any risk of a regasification plant opening a path to a gas market without regional approval. The planning and implementation must anticipate such possibilities. This potential had not been considered in the autonomous community’s plan, so the fourth final provision cannot be enacted without changing energy planning in the Canary Islands, explains José Antonio Valbuena, Minister of Ecological Transition.
Sí Podemos Canarias rejects this view held by the PSOE. A few party spokespeople argue that the fourth final provision should be removed from the initial royal decree and that the temporarily amended decree should be fully corrected. They insist the current correction does not suffice and push for a complete revision to prevent any future regasification expansions without clear regional consent.