Canary Islander have a maritime vocation

In Puertos Canarios we manage a network of ports that includes docks of general interest, as well as shelters and dykes, and marinas, exploited under concession.

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Presentation

Puertos Canarios

Puertos Canarios is a public business entity assigned to the Ministry of Public Works of the Government of the Canary Islands. It manages about 50 ports of general interest, port facilities, shelters and dykes, as well as marinas that are operated under concession.

History and profile of Puertos Canarios

In the last century, between 1970 and 1980, the grouping of the “cabildos” of both provinces, were concerned about the change that was taking place in the fishing sector. For that reason, they considered providing the islands with necessary port infrastructures to carry out this activity in safety and efficiency conditions.
In 1985 the State transferred to the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands a set of thirteen ports and other facilities that were not considered to be of general interest, which led to the creation of Ports Service, under the Public Works General Director, which was set up with few means and much effort and sacrifice on the part of the assigned personnel. The beginnings were difficult, due to the low budget that they had and that was destined, almost in its totality, to repair breaks that caused the winter storms.
With the birth of Ports Service, the new philosophy of inter-island transport emerged, which expected to bring the islands closer to the nearest points. This caused that many of the fishing refuges have been acquiring a special protagonism within the Canary network of communications, making possible the building and the development of the great maritime motorway of the Canary Islands.
In 2003, during Parliament of the Canary Islands’ V Legislature, the Canary Islands Ports Law, the legal instrument that allows to order the port system, was approved. The main change that included this Ports Law in terms of port management was the creation of a Public Business Entity called Puertos Canarios, with a private company structure and a capacity to exercise administrative powers.
Public Business Entity Puertos Canarios is an entity with legal-public personality and its own patrimony, assigned to the competent department in matter of ports, that is to say, the Ministry of Public Works and Transports.
Although the creation of the Public Entity Enterprise Puertos Canarios was approved in 2003 with the entry into force of the Canary Islands Ports Law (Law 14/2003, of 8 April), for different political and economic reasons, it did not began to operate on its own until the year 2012.
Specifically, the start operation of Puertos Canarios began on February 10, 2012 with the appointment of the members of its Board of Management, whose first session was held on the same day.
Currently the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands has carried out the transfer of competencies to Puertos Canarios.

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Puertos Canarios’ competencies

As established in Article 22 of the Ports Law, the public entity is responsible for planning, operating and managing the port system of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.

Specifically, it is competency of Puertos Canarios:

Realization, authorization, promotion and control of maritime and land operations related to port traffic.
Management of ports’ service area in coordination with administrations and competent bodies in matters of land use planning and town planning.
Management of public port domain that could affect to the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.
Coordination of operations of different modes of transport in port area.
Coordination and inspection of operation of maritime-port facilities whose management has been delegated to other public bodies or entities.
Optimization of economic management and profitability of patrimony and resources assigned to it.
Control, where appropriate, of management and operation of ports within its jurisdiction.

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Entity’s functions

For the exercise of its competencies, Puertos Canarios will have the following functions:

Manage, administer and control port services.
Coordinate the actions of different regional services inside ports’ service area.
Order uses of ports’ service area, and plan and schedule their future development.
Design and execute the necessary works within the framework of approved plans and programs.
Technically approve investment projects that are included in the approved program.
Grant concessions and authorizations for occupation of public domain and all those titles that are necessary for the provision of port services.
Raise public revenues and fees for concessions and authorizations granted and for port services rendered.
Apply sanctioning regime and adopt all necessary measures for the protection and proper management of the public port domain.
Ensure that port activity and environmental quality values are compatible.
How many are needed for the exercise of its competencies and are planned in this or other laws.

In addition, Ports Law establishes that “special police functions on the public port domain assigned to or owned by the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, as well as port services, shall be exercised by the personnel of Puertos Canarios, whom this entity attributes the exercise of this function in service area”.