The Government of the Balearic Islands will demand that the state aid for public transport in the Balearic Islands for 2025 covers the real cost of free travel, as the Ministry of Housing, Territory and Mobility has stated on several occasions to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, bearing in mind that the allocation established for the years 2023 and 2024 has been insufficient and that the administrations of the islands have assumed the bulk of the financing of free travel with their funds.
As of 1 January, the Government of the Balearic Islands, as it has already stated in recent days, will continue to guarantee free travel on regional transport (intercity bus, train and metro in Mallorca) for users with an intermodal card, as it has for the last two years, once the Spanish government has extended the state aid as the Government of the Balearic Islands had requested, and will inform the Ministry of the need to improve funding to ensure that it covers the part of the state contribution corresponding to the free travel.
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The Government will demand that state aid for public transport should cover the real cost of free travel
In this case, for the year 2025, the Royal Decree-Law approved in the last Council of Ministers of the year and published on 24 December, extends state funding for public transport in the Islands, a measure that had been demanded by the Govern, but does not establish an amount of this aid, unlike the last two years, in which the central government had set an amount of 43 million euros for all public transport in the Islands, which has been insufficient, both for 2023 and 2024.
In the last 12 months, the Government of the Balearic Islands has assumed 80% of the cost of free public transport under regional jurisdiction: a total of 54.3 million euros, including bonuses and discounts for certain groups financed by the Autonomous Community and the shortfall in the state contribution during this period. For this reason, the Regional Ministry has demanded that the Ministry assume with its contribution the real cost of the corresponding part to complement the free education.
In this sense, as Minister José Luis Mateo stated in a letter to Minister Óscar Puente on 19 December, the Government is demanding not only an extension of the aid but also an increase in state funding for public transport on the islands. As Minister Mateo indicated, the cost of 54.3 million euros financed by the Balearic government contrasts with the 14.6 million euros of the state contribution for regional transport (part of the 43 million euros that other administrations have distributed over the last two years between the regional authorities, the EMT of Palma and the island councils of Menorca, Eivissa and Formentera).
Thus, the ministry reiterates that the funding provided by the central government for public transport in the Balearic Islands for 2025 ‘must be adapted to the real cost of applying free travel’ by the various regional, island and municipal administrations of the islands, as stated by Minister Mateo.
The Government, as it has already stated in recent days, will continue to guarantee free travel on regional transport (intercity bus, train and metro in Mallorca) from 1 January for users with an intermodal card, as it has done for the last two years.