The Balearic Islands will ban tourist rentals of private boats to curb new state regulations.

PalmThe Balearic Government will approve an amendment to the Decree on Nautical Charters to prohibit tourist boat rentals and thus halt the new state regulations that, starting in mid-August, will allow private boat rentals for three months a year.

This was announced on Tuesday by the president of the regional government, Marga Prohens, who explained that this measure will be approved by the Governing Council next Friday. She made the announcement after participating in an extraordinary session of the nautical committee to address a rejection of the new state regulations that, she pointed out, is shared by the vast majority of the sector.

This is the second response that the Balearic Islands have taken to the tourist rental of private boats proposed by the Spanish government, after having issued an order last week Prohibit the commercial use of regionally managed moorings reserved for private boats.

"Today we have taken a further step and have informed the members of the nautical committee that we have expedited the modification of the Nautical Charter Decree and that once we have heard from them, a decree prohibiting the tourist rental of private boats in the Balearic Islands will go to the Governing Council this Friday," he said.

The future regional decree, according to the Government in a statement, will have "immediate" effect and will maintain the restriction on rentals only to vessels on the sixth list, explicitly excluding those on the seventh list that request to temporarily switch to commercial use. In this way, the Executive argued, the differentiated fiscal, operational and legal regime between private and professional uses will be preserved, something "essential to maintain public control" over moorings, fees and concessions.

The Minister of the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, explained that the modification of the current decree responds to the need to update the regulatory framework with "greater precision, clarity, and responsiveness" to the changes proposed by the State.

"It ignores the island reality"

Prohens has asserted that she will not allow the Spanish government to "impose a model that ignores the island reality" of the Balearic Islands and that "compromises environmental sustainability and maritime safety." "We have made it very clear: in the Balearic Islands, tourist rentals of private boats will have no place," she insisted.

The regional president has once again emphasized that the regulations the Spanish government intends to implement should not be applied uniformly throughout the country, as not all areas suffer the same nautical pressure and have their own loading capacity. She placed special emphasis on sustainability, safety, and a balanced use of ports as "red lines" that they do not intend to cross.

"This Government will always defend the autonomy of the Balearic Islands to regulate maritime activity according to its needs and limitations. We do not want more vessels saturating our coastline or turning the sea into an uncontrolled speculative activity," she stressed.