The Council of State has endorsed this Thursday the cut of the Tagus-Segura transfer with the unanimous approval of the opinion on the Royal Decree Project by which 12 river basin management plans are reviewed and that supports that the Tagus has a minimum ecological flow that allows you to stay in good condition.
The consequence of the resolution -which is not binding- of the highest advisory body of the Government of Spain will be the cutting of the Tajo-Segura crossing as claimed by Castilla-La Mancha, governed by the PSOE, and rejected by the Valencian Community (PSOE), Murcia and Andalusia (both from the PP).
In addition, among other issues, the Royal Decree project involving the planning of the maritime space of the five Spanish marine demarcations (the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the Strait and Alborán,
In the absence of knowing the letter, the Government of Emiliano García-Page has celebrated the approval of the opinion.
"It is very difficult for anything to be more legal than that which responds to five Supreme Court rulings that oblige ecological flows to be included in the planning of the Tagus," said the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development of Castilla-La Mancha , Francisco Martinez Arroyo.
Sources from the Valencian Generalitat, chaired by the socialist Ximo Puig, have been prudent in not knowing the details of the opinion but have indicated that they will use "any way in defense of the irrigators of Alicante" and remain open to dialogue with the Government.
The president of the Provincial Council of Alicante and the Valencian PP, Carlos Mazón, has defined the revision of the water plan as "the biggest hack" to the Tajo-Segura transfer in its history.
"The announced death of the transfer is consummated with the plans of the PSOE, we are facing irreparable damage to the province of Alicante that will affect the garden of Europe, sustainability, agriculture, the economy of thousands of families who live off the transfer and at consumer prices”, the popular leader assured in a statement.
The Asaja-Alicante agrarian collective has shown its "blatant disagreement" and has announced that it will meet next Tuesday in front of the Moncloa Palace to "defend the continuity of the transfer."
More information
Keys to the Tagus-Segura transfer.
Why is it said that the water war returns?
The Tagus basin plan contemplates that the ecological flow as it passes through Aranjuez (Madrid) rises to six to seven cubic meters per second from January 1, 2023, to eight from 2026 and rises to 8.65 in 2027. The Central Union of Irrigators of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct (SCRATS) affirms that its application would make agriculture unfeasible, which for decades has depended on transferred water.
Last week thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid against the cut.
The Murcian president, Fernando López Miras, has headed the representation of his autonomous community, while the Valencian Executive has been represented by the Minister of Agriculture, Isaura Navarro, and the Andalusian by his counterpart in Andalusia, Carmen Crespo.
The Government of Pedro Sánchez assures that it has prepared an investment plan of up to 8.
The mandatory report of the Council of State incorporates the comments made by the councilors and has been sent this afternoon to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
The legal services of the department headed by the third vice president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, will analyze the content of the opinion before the referral of the basin plans for the third planning cycle 2022-2027 to the Council of Ministers for final approval.
They will then be communicated to the European Commission, although with a delay, since Spain should have done so before the end of 2022.
Specifically, the Royal Decree contemplates the hydrological planning of the Western Cantabrian, Guadalquivir, Ceuta, Melilla, Segura, Júcar districts, as well as the Spanish part of the international rivers shared with Portugal –Miño-Sil, Duero, Tagus, Guadiana– ;
and with France – Eastern Cantabrian and Ebro.
The Government sent its proposal for a Royal Decree to the Council of State and asked the consultative institution to issue the opinion urgently in order to receive it before January 20.
The procedure fell to the eighth section of the Council of State, chaired by the permanent adviser Enrique Alonso García.
The Plenary session also analyzed this Thursday the draft Royal Decree approving the maritime spatial planning plans of the five Spanish marine demarcations, a matter also approved unanimously and whose opinion will also be sent this Thursday to the Ministry for the Ecological transition.