The Valencian Government alleges that the Tagus plan has processing defects and was changed unilaterally

The Valencian president Ximo Puig, this Monday in Alicante. EUROPA PRESS (EUROPA PRESS)

The Valencian Government has asked the President of the Council of State, Magdalena Valerio Cordero, to issue an unfavorable report on the draft royal decree that affects the hydrological plan, which includes the regulation of the Tajo-Segura transfer.

As argued by the Valencian Generalitat Advocacy in the allegations presented this Tuesday before the advisory body, the draft hydrological plan for the Tagus, which establishes an ecological flow, "questions the transfer and does not take into account the economic impacts it causes", has suffered "defects in its processing, determinants for its nullity of full right", and also suffer from "lack of criteria and technical rigor".

The controversy began with the wording change suffered by the ninth additional provision of the draft royal decree approved by the National Water Council on November 29 of last year and, above all, in the way in which the change was carried out, maintains the Valencian Administration.

The first text linked the ecological flows of the Tagus to a previous assessment of its environmental status in 2025 and "this is the original text that was approved by the majority at the meeting of the National Water Council on November 29," he points out.

However, after that meeting, a new text was drawn up, which is not the one that was debated and voted on in the National Water Council, the allegations show.

The new wording imposes fixed and immovable increases in the ecological flows for the Tagus until 2027 "without taking into account any prior analysis of the state of the waters, with the consequent and serious damage to the irrigators of the Segura basin".

The text, "unilaterally modified" by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, without previously communicating the content of this change to either the Valencian Government or the National Water Council itself, is the one that has reached the Council of State, therefore that the Generalitat understands that "it has not been subjected to the principles of citizen participation and concertation" and that there could have been "a full nullity in the issuance of the mandatory report".

The Autonomous Lawyers consider that an "arbitrary decision based on the free will of the Administration that drafted the regulation" has been made and that during the process "the principles of legal certainty, legitimate trust, institutional loyalty, good governance and transparency have been violated ”, principles protected by the Constitution and by the legal regime of public administrations.

The Valencian Government requests that the original version of the ninth additional provision be "rescued and reintroduced" and draws attention to the fact that the new Ecological Transition text "talks about studies and evaluations when, at the same time, it sets some flows in advance upwards without any commitment to establish them based on a previous analysis”.

As soon as the wording change was made, Ximo Puig anticipated that he would appeal to the Council of State in defense of the Segura irrigators, while rejecting that the issue would end up becoming a war between territories.

The Tagus basin plan —with water reserves of 40.1%, below the average of the last 10 years (46%)— contemplates that the ecological flow as it passes through Aranjuez (Madrid) rises to from six to seven cubic meters per second from January 1, 2023, which will rise to eight from 2026 and rise to 8.65 in 2027. Irrigators from the southeast believe that these reserves would make agriculture in the area unfeasible, which depends on the transfer".

Irrigation protest in Madrid

The presentation of the allegations by the Valencian Government, chaired by the socialist Ximo Puig and to which PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem belong, occur only one day before the irrigators of the Segura basin demonstrate in Madrid against the plan of the Ministry for Ecological Transition.

Puig will not attend the protest, as the leader of the PP in the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, has repeatedly requested, but there will be a representation of the Valencian Executive, headed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Puig is traveling to Brussels today, where he is meeting with the President of the European Commission and High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, to address issues related to industry and the productive fabric of the Valencian Community.

Later she will travel to Frankfurt to participate in a textile fair.

The Third Vice President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, defended this Monday, in statements to Antena 3, the need to cut the water resources of the Tajo-Segura transfer to comply with five Supreme Court rulings that required the establishment of a ecological flow for the Tagus River, but he assured that by 2027 investments will be made to guarantee an additional 120 cubic hectometres of water for Almería, Murcia and Alicante.

Ribera insisted that it is necessary in Spain to anticipate solutions to water problems derived from a significant decrease in the availability of water resources and described it as "absurd" that every time hydrological plans have to be approved, "whoever governs" produce that "tension" that is more emotional than rational.

The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, has also intervened in the controversy by highlighting that Spain needs to apply "common sense" in water matters and has stressed that the sentences that the autonomous community has won in the Supreme Court they are “forcing a change in hydrological policy”.