The PP and MÉS make common cause in Congress to request the expansion of the special regime of the Balearic Islands

PalmaThe PP and Sumar-MÉS garnered votes this Wednesday in the Congress's Territorial Policy Commission to request the expansion of the Special Regime for the Balearic Islands (REIB). In a text that has been validated in the Lower House, they have agreed to demand from Pedro Sánchez's government "the reform and updating of the REIB", in addition to a review of the mechanisms that determine the insularity factor and the State's investments in the Balearic Islands, so that the floating population (tourists and seasonal workers) and effective demographic pressure are taken into account. In the same vein, they demand to incorporate specific instruments into the REIB to promote economic diversification and ecological transition, in addition to guaranteeing the subsidy for public transport such as trains and buses in the Islands.

This is an initiative promoted by the eco-sovereignists to which the popular party has introduced amendments and which has finally come to light. Throughout this legislature, MÉS deputy Vicenç Vidal has promoted several initiatives on the REIB in Congress. One of the eco-sovereignist's first parliamentary questions was to find out which REIB-related activities had actually been promoted and which had not. In 2024, moreover, the fiscal part of the REIB was fully developed regulatorily, through a royal decree. Nor is it the first time that the eco-sovereignists have voted jointly with the PP on matters affecting the Islands. In November 2025, both parties defended an amendment to the State Law on Sustainable Mobility which had the votes of the PP and also of the PSIB to approve free public transport.

The REIB establishes measures to compensate for some of the economic disadvantages of the Islands due to being an island territory. In practice, it involves providing tax benefits for companies in the Balearic Islands, compensating for the added cost of transporting goods between the Islands and the Peninsula, and establishing that the State must take the island factor into account when planning public investments. It was first approved in 1998, under the government of the popular Jaume Matas. But it was not updated until 2019, during the Government of Francina Armengol.