The Formentera Council's Office of Social Welfare has announced that in 2016 it will make 13,000 euros of aid available to local “hometown groups”, emigrants' collectives and other Formentera non-profits. To apply, a group must organise activities related to immigration or work with transplant populations on programming that promotes  welcoming and integration.

Each association can only submit one application. Grant awards will cover up to 75% of the total cost of a group's project, with no more than 4,000 euros in subsidies given per activity. Applications are to be handed in at the Citizens' Information Office no later than June 13. A technical committee will be tasked with determining how grants are distributed. Last year four grants of this type were awarded. One went to the Andalusian cultural association of Formentera, one to the association that plans the island's yearly intercultural day, one to the Extremaduran cultural association of Eivissa-Formentera and one to a group that promotes traditional cuisine on the island. Grants ranged from 2,000 to 4,000 euros each.

Two figures of the Formentera Council, President Jaume Ferrer and Councillor Sònia Cardona of the community involvement office, reported on legal proceedings the island administration has brought to the high court of the Balearic Islands (TSJB) in order to halt the relocation of Formentera's ferry landing in the Eivissa port.

According to the Council, not only has procedure not been followed in the project's planning stages, but, Ferrer said, to move the landing would “violate legislation currently in place”. Àngel Navarro, head of the administration's legal department, was also present at this morning's announcement. Ferrer said the landing move would fall foul of the infrastructural directive of the Port d'Eivissa, the so-called “Port law”, another law on urban planning and Eivissa's own directive concerning land use on the island.

Vis-à-vis the procedure that was breached, Ferrer maintained “the who, when and how of this decision remain a mystery to us. We have yet to see the landing relocation reflected in any official decision by the Balearic port authority or its related agencies.” In the words of the CiF president, “If we hadn't brought our case to the TSJB, it would have been tantamount to accepting the decision to relocate.” Evoking an ever-more difficult battle to keep the landing where it is, Ferrer said the time had come to take action to stop the plans.

Public consensus
Before this morning's announcement, Ferrer spoke with heads of all the local political parties and received their blessing on the Council's suit. April 4 last, the Consell d'Entitats adopted a manifesto –later ratified in an April 11 one-off Council plenary– calling for “the use of internal or external legal counsel to do whatever is necessary to defend Formentera's position”.