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Brussels reiterates that the PP and Vox irrigation plan in Doñana may "infringe" European environmental laws

2023-04-21T03:01:46.228Z


Vice President Teresa Ribera warns that the Commission "considers the proposal being processed by the right wing in the Andalusian Parliament to be radically incompatible with the protection" of the park


The alarm in Brussels at the possibility that the bill of the PP and Vox to regularize irrigation in the area of ​​Doñana does not go down.

The European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, has warned this Thursday in writing that the Andalusian legislation, as it has been presented, could "infringe" European legislation on environmental protection and reiterates that, as "guardian of the treaties”, the European Executive could employ “all possible means”.

That is to say, going so far as to request heavy fines if the plans go ahead.

A forceful response to a question from socialist MEPs that, according to them, the Government of Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla should be taken as a "final notice" to "desist" from the legislative initiative.

“The Commission services have warned that, if approved in the terms in which it has been announced, the [Andalusian] bill could infringe EU environmental legislation,” writes Sinkevicius in his written response to a question “ priority” sent by the socialist MEPs César Luena and Javi López on March 17 asking if Brussels was aware of the “unilateral attempt to regularize illegal irrigation” by the Andalusian government.

"In that case -continues the commissioner's response-, as guardian of the treaties, the Commission would consider using all means available under said treaties to guarantee that Spain complies with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) without delay",

Sinkevicius's response to the MEPs comes two days after the commissioner met for almost an hour with the third vice president and minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in Stockholm, to discuss the situation in Doñana.

His response is similar to that given by various spokespersons for the Commission since the Andalusian Parliament began, last week, the express processing of the regulations, despite warnings from the central government, scientists and the European Commission itself. .

Brussels has had a file open against Spain for years due to the lack of control over the water that is extracted from the aquifer from which this space and a powerful agricultural sector and several population centers in the province of Huelva are nourished.

And, after the first news about the PP proposal, the Commission already sent a notice, in mid-March, through another letter in which it left open the possibility of reactivating that file and denouncing Spain before the Court of Justice of The EU.

In that letter, the Director General of the Environment and author of the letter, Florika Fink-Hooijer, warned that the new Andalusian legislative initiative would entail "a flagrant violation of the provisions" in the CJEU ruling and warned that it could return to the court to request economic sanctions against Spain.

In that letter, the Commission urged the Government of Spain to give it explanations, and the term to reply ended this Thursday.

Ribera has confirmed today that this response has already been sent on a problem in which the powers are shared: the State has those of water and the Board those of territorial and agricultural planning.

The third vice president has explained that the letter details that her department has approved a river basin hydrological plan that includes measures to eliminate the wells that puncture the aquifer to extract water and that around 500 legal catchments have been closed.

The Government, which is the only interlocutor with Brussels, also includes the explanations of the Junta de Andalucía.

According to Ribera,

The regional government limits itself to saying that the proposed irrigation law does not affect the park and that it is the result of an initiative of Parliament, that is, not of the Board.

The PP, which governs in the Junta, also has a majority in the regional Parliament.

A girl watches birds in the Doñana marsh from El Rocío, on April 12.PACO PUENTES

A spokesman for the Commission has indicated shortly after that the Community Executive will analyze the new response and has reiterated that "it will take any new step that is necessary."

Brussels does not have a deadline to study the Spanish responses and can also choose, before resorting again to the CJEU to claim sanctions, to ask for more explanations.

In any case, the spokesman recalled that there is no doubt at the Commission about the existence of "very solid scientific and technical evidence on the adverse effects of the overexploitation of groundwater in Doñana."

Ribera has also insisted in this regard that, in this case, there is no "ghost" behind the opposition that has raised the bill in scientific, political, environmental and EU fields.

"They perfectly monitor what we do in Doñana", the vice president pointed out in relation to Brussels.

"The Commission understands what is happening and considers it radically incompatible with the protection of Doñana," she warned.

“Blunt” warning

For the socialist MEP César Luena, who processed the "priority question" to the Commission last month that was answered this Thursday, the response from Brussels constitutes a "forceful" warning that the Moreno Bonilla government should not ignore.

"The answer is the final, definitive, serious warning to the Andalusian government of the PP with the support of Vox to desist from this drift, because it has no foundation and that it has an electoral interest in some way," Luena reacted to this newspaper. from Strasbourg, where he attends the sessions of the European Parliament this week.

According to the also vice-president of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, with the commissioner's response “the Andalusian government has no choice but to back off”.

In addition, underlines Luena, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo,

"should take note" as the head of conservative training.

"He likes to play the ostrich, but he has to take note (...) he has to respond and he has to stop this madness," he claimed.

In recent weeks, the battle for Doñana has also moved to Brussels —and Strasbourg—, where the political groups mobilized to force a response from the Commission.

While the IU has requested precautionary measures, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, chaired by the Spanish Iratxe García, has requested interviews with Sinkevicius and with the vice-president of the Commission responsible for the Green Pact, Frans Timmermans.

Socialist sources hope that the meetings can take place next week.

According to community sources, it is most likely that at least Timmermans will receive García on Thursday or Friday, although the agenda is not yet fully closed.

Given the commotion and the continued warnings from the Commission, the PP has also mobilized.

On the same day that Ribera discussed the Doñana issue with the Environment Commissioner in Stockholm, the European People's Party, which includes the Spanish conservatives in Brussels, also requested by letter an interview with Sinkevicius and Timmermans to clarify a controversy that they attribute to “partisan interests”.

The letter, signed by popular MEPs Dolors Montserrat and Juan Ignacio Zoido, as well as by the leader of the European conservatives, the German Manfred Weber, maintains that the Andalusian bill "does not harm the Andalusian park, but rather protects it".

From Madrid,

Minister Ribera has hoped that the meetings that the European PP and the Junta will hold with the representatives of the European Environment Commission "make the Andalusian government reconsider."

"I hope that Mr. Feijóo puts order in his party," Ribera has riveted.

The European Socialists have also announced their intention to organize a visit of MEPs to Doñana to learn about the situation on the ground.

A trip for which, according to Luena, parliamentarians of various nationalities from the groups of the Left, Greens, Liberals and the Social Democrats themselves have already expressed their interest, but which will not take place until the regional elections have passed.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-04-21

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