The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno (PP), has opened up to modifying the proposed law on irrigation of Doñana in what the European Commission asks him to change, after warnings from Brussels about the possible breach of EU environmental standards.
The popular baron assures that the project to legalize irrigated areas on the outskirts of the natural park "is susceptible to modifications and changes";
and its Minister for the Environment, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, will ask the European Commissioner for the branch, at a meeting next week, to convey to him what the Community Executive disagrees with, to study it and modify it as the case may be.
It is the first time that the Andalusian Government opens the door to rectify the legislative project on Doñana,
also questioned by scientists and by the central Executive.
"We are willing to listen to the proposals of the European Commission and the Government of Spain," said Moreno, visiting Madrid.
“We are going to ask the Commissioner for the Environment and the European Commission to transfer us, of the 25 pages of this bill, what is susceptible to modifications and changes, exactly what they do not agree on, so that we can study it and modify it ”, stressed the popular baron before participating in a lunch-meeting with the PP in Madrid, which has asked him to campaign in the southern municipalities of the Community, in the so-called red belt
.
The Andalusian president has emphasized that the legislative initiative of PP and Vox on the irrigation of Doñana is susceptible to being modified in the parliamentary process.
And he has been conciliatory in the face of successive warnings from Brussels about possible breaches of EU environmental legislation, with a willingness to back down if necessary.
“Next week the Minister for the Environment is going to meet with the Commissioner for the Environment [Virginijus Sinkevičius], so that the Commission can also tell us.
Without any problem, that's why it's a bill, it's not a government decree."
Moreno has insisted on the willingness of his Government to also dialogue with the central Executive on Doñana, and on the willingness to alter his approaches.
“It is a pity that the Government of the Nation has never wanted to sit around a table to talk seriously about a problem.
What we have to do as a government is provide solutions.
We have put a proposal on the table, when they present us with an alternative, we will study it”.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has insisted this Friday during a rally in Toledo to ask the Junta de Andalucía to rectify.
"They have no legitimacy, even though they have absolute majorities in the Andalusian Parliament, to take on a treasure like Doñana," Sánchez argued.
"That they rectify, that they come out of their castling of arrogance and arrogance, that they listen to science, that they comply with European legality and put back this authentic violation of a paradise of Huelva, Andalusia, Spain and Europe."
Sources close to the president of the Board insist that Moreno's words do not imply a reversal regarding the substance of the bill, which he does not contemplate withdrawing.
"Brussels is not receiving good information, that is why in the letter that is sent to the Commission it is clarified that the proposal does not come from the Board, but from Parliament and that is why the counselor is going to clarify that the text does not include touch the aquifers and that no one was granted amnesty”, explain the interlocutors consulted.
From Moreno's environment they rule out that the Commissioner for the Environment, attached to Los Verdes, can ask them to withdraw the law: “If we are asked to clarify points or to guarantee elements, they will be added.
That is why it is a bill and not a decree”,
reports Eva Saiz.
The Andalusian government wants Brussels or the central government to "give them alternatives" to solve the problem of irrigators, according to sources from the Junta.
The gesture of Moreno Bonilla, opening up to correct the law, implies, in the opinion of these sources, "that the Government of Pedro Sánchez is left without excuses to sit down" with the Board and find an alternative together.
We are going to listen to what is proposed and everything that improves its content can be taken into account ”, warn, however, the sources close to Moreno, consulted.
"What the Andalusian government is clear about is that the problem of lack of protection suffered by 1,500 farmers has to be fixed," they add.
Until now, the main argument put forward by the Andalusian government, its advisers and PP parliamentarians is that the law did not affect the aquifer and only referred to surface waters.
This morning, in line with the explanations transferred by the Board to the European Commission in defense of this proposed law for the expansion of irrigation in Doñana, both Moreno and the Minister of Sustainability and Environment have stressed that the norm is still in parliamentary process and there may be changes in verbatim.
Fernández-Pacheco pointed out this morning, hours before the Andalusian president's speech: "Now the different political groups will have the opportunity to amend, the amendments will be negotiated, that is what parliamentarism consists of, and what is most important, the social agents they will go to Parliament too,
to explain what your proposal is, and the different groups will listen to all sensibilities.
I do not know what amendments will be accepted, what will be the contributions of the social agents that are going to participate, what is clear to me is that from the Junta de Andalucía we are going to be very attentive and our only intention is to approve the best possible text” .
The reasoning of the Board is included in the letter that the Government of Spain, the only interlocutor with Brussels, has sent to the community authorities to explain the situation.
The Andalusian Executive takes refuge in the fact that the text of the norm is not definitive and that it is subject to the modifications made by the amendments of the rest of the parliamentary groups, for which reason "the mere processing of this bill does not directly imply and indirectly, no effect on compliance with the sentence, since, at this time, the final result of the text is unknown.”
He also insists that the current wording "makes it clear that the aquifer is neither touched nor affected."
The letter is the response to the successive warnings that Brussels has launched about the bill of the PP and Vox to regularize irrigation in the area of Doñana.
The European Commissioner for the Environment warned Thursday in writing that the Andalusian legislation, as it has been presented, could "infringe" European legislation on environmental protection, and reiterated that, as "guardian of the treaties", the European Executive could employ “all possible means”.
In other words, going so far as to request heavy fines if the plans go ahead, as contained in a parliamentary response to a question from Socialist MEPs.
After days of tug of war with the Government, the Andalusian Executive is now open to the possibility of rectifying its plan for Doñana.
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