The Port of Las Palmas Authority has used its “port of the month” platform in the July 3, 2026 issue of the magazine by the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) to air a catalogue of regulatory complaints that borders on geopolitical daring. In the interview, Beatriz Calzada demanded that EU institutions show “à la carte” flexibility in emissions trading (ETS), advancing a striking argumentative twist: she flatly rejects placing Canary Islands in the same fiscal bucket as sovereign republics the size of Malta or Cyprus. Notably, one of the most powerful multinationals operating in the Port of Las Palmas has its tax headquarters in Cyprus.
What Calzada argues to the ESPO
Calzada, in comments to the publication, says “it is a mistake to equate the Outermost Regions (ORs) with island states like Malta or Cyprus,” arguing that, unlike those nations, territories such as hers face “structural limitations linked to their status, exacerbated by their remoteness from mainland Europe.” The ESPO has Ansis Zeltiņš as president, Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Riga (Latvia), and Gerardo Landaluce, vice president and president of the Port Authority of Algeciras (PP).
The technical scepticism
Technical scepticism toward this island complaint is inevitable. In a display of institutional creativity, Las Palmas’ strategy is to seek preferential treatment simply for being an OR, while overlooking a small detail: Malta and Cyprus are full EU Member States, with seats in the Council, the right to veto, and their own diplomatic services. The president tells ESPO that the aim of this push toward Brussels “is not to exempt the Outermost Regions from EU measures, but to ensure that those measures are properly adapted to their specific circumstances.”
Distance as a regulatory weakness
For the Port Authority, geographical remoteness is not only a physical reality but also a regulatory weakness versus African competitors, whose proximity “creates unfair competition, with the potential to divert traffic and reduce the competitiveness of ports in the region.” As Calzada details to the European magazine of the business federation, the situation in the Canary Islands is “particularly complex” due to the proximity of competing ports in West Africa, which are not subject to the same EU regulatory framework. The July regulatory review will determine whether Brussels gives in to pressure from peripheral regions or instead prioritises the rigidity of its green agenda.
Roots in Las Palmas
Calzada also recalls that “although I come from a family without a maritime or port tradition, I have deep personal roots in the Port of Las Palmas,” because “my professional career has been closely tied to urban planning and territorial development, and at the political level I have worked in the public administration in various institutions; presiding over the Port Authority has been a major challenge and a role that I feel deeply proud of.”
The entry The diplomatic maze in Brussels: when a Canary Island province seeks the privileges of a republic was published first on encanarymaritime.com.
