The Government awards the new Formentera beach concessions to try to close the political crisis
Excluded are the most problematic facilities and also the facilities that according to a report supported by the former Director General should be discarded
PalmaThe Government has tried this Tuesday to close the political crisis opened around the management of the seasonal concessions of the beaches of Formentera. After days of controversy marked by the dismissal of the Director General of Coasts and Littoral, Maria Joaquina Ferrer, the criticism of the opposition, the public support of the officials of the Directorate General of Coasts to the former director and the complaints of the concessionaires of the beach huts for the lack of decisions, the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle has announced that it has completed the review of the seasonal facilities and has approved the resolution that sets the authorized occupations for the period 2026-2029.
According to the Ministry, the resolution has been adopted after analyzing the allegations presented by the Consell Insular de Formentera, which during the processing modified part of its initial proposals. Among the changes introduced are the renunciation of certain facilities, the relocation of sun lounger and umbrella areas and the reduction of occupation areas to adapt them to the required distances from the dune systems and the high tide line.
The Government assures that it has individually reviewed each proposal and has only authorized those considered compatible with "the regulations of Coasts, environmental protection and the maintenance of public use of the beaches". The fact is that this resolution arrives after the dismissal of former director general Maria Joaquina Ferrer, to whom the Executive had attributed a lack of diligence in the management of the sun loungers. The controversy, however, goes much further, because the core of the conflict is Ferrer's intention to heed the technicians and declare the expiry of the beach huts that accumulate several irregularities.
Precisely some businessmen who had lost their concessions have issued a statement this Tuesday in which they denounce the uncertainty caused by the lack of a definitive decision on seasonal services. The businessmen warn that the situation compromises economic activity and called on the Government to definitively unblock the files.
According to these employers, "the Government already has reports that identify essential non-compliance and conclude that the expiry procedure must be initiated. It cannot request reports, receive an unequivocal conclusion and then act as if that conclusion did not exist." Furthermore, they assure that "the change in the General Directorate cannot become a mechanism to delay, archive or deactivate a procedure whose initiation has been expressly proposed by the competent technicians".
Partial response
With the resolution announced this Tuesday, the Executive intends to respond to this situation and provide stability to the concessions for the next four years, once the allegations presented by the Consell Insular have been reviewed.
Among the authorized actions are installations in Cala Saona, Cavall d'en Borràs, Les Illetes, Llevant, Els Pujols, El Caló, El Copinyar, Migjorn, Els Arenals, and L'Estany del Peix. A large part of the authorizations correspond to services related to security and accessibility, such as watchtowers, first aid modules, rescue boats, and equipment intended to facilitate access for people with reduced mobility.
The resolution also gives the green light to certain areas for sun loungers and umbrellas after the Consell has modified their configuration, reduced their surface area, or changed their location to adapt them to the required technical criteria.
However, the Ministry maintains several occupations outside the concession that it considers incompatible with current regulations. These include certain areas for sun loungers and umbrellas in Les Illetes, a kiosk-bookstore in El Copinyar, and various beach huts, terraces, and changing rooms planned for Cala Saona, Els Pujols, El Copinyar, Els Arenals, Migjorn, and Ca Marí.
The department also recalls that all authorized occupations must be adapted at all times to the physical reality of each beach and that, if the coastal conditions vary during the season, the installations may be modified, relocated, or removed in agreement with the Ministry.
The report that still casts shadows over the file
Despite this attempt to consider the controversy overcome, the new resolution does not dissipate the main question that has marked the political crisis of recent weeks. As ARA Balears has learned, before the dismissal of Maria Joaquina Ferrer, the technical services of the Directorate General of Coasts prepared a 16-page legal report that concluded that there were sufficient indications to initiate the file for the termination of the current concession for seasonal services on the beaches of Formentera.
The report maintains that several essential conditions imposed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition had been breached when granting the concession, including the fact that several kiosks were not truly removable, that they had not been removed during the mandatory period, modifications in the location of some facilities, and other breaches related to authorized services. For this reason, the technicians proposed initiating the termination procedure for the concession.
According to various sources familiar with the file, Ferrer shared this technical criterion and advocated for continuing the processing of the proposal formulated by the Coasts services. These same sources assure that higher instances within the Government indicated that she should not follow this path, a disagreement that would have ended up leading to Ferrer's dismissal.
The press release issued this Tuesday, however, makes no reference to this internal report nor explains what administrative path the termination proposal has taken. The Government focuses its message on the new authorizations for the 2026-2029 period and on the modifications introduced by the Consell de Formentera to adapt the occupations to the technical requirements demanded by the Coasts regulations.
The big unknown remains, therefore, what has happened with the file prepared by the technical services that proposed declaring the termination of the current concession, which, according to various sources, originated the internal conflict that has ended with the dismissal of the Director General of Coasts and Littoral.
