The Supreme Court dismisses the precautionary suspension of the ecological flows of the Tagus for 2026 and 2027

The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court has dismissed the precautionary suspension of the staggering of the ecological flows of the Tagus for the years 2026 and 2027, between the Bolarque dam and the Valdecañas reservoir, considering that this measure does not deprive the Generalitat of its legitimate purpose on the appeal it has raised and, that since this is a forecast for the future, the substance of the matter will be resolved before these new cuts occur.

The Generalitat Valenciana filed an administrative appeal against the ninth additional provision considering that the fixing of the new flows for the coming years must be done after the analysis of the state of the water. The Supreme Court considers that since these ecological flows would not be applied until 2026 and 2027, this is a "more than reasonable time for the Chamber to issue a sentence" and maintains that, in the event that it has not been resolved, "the precautionary measure can be requested at any time as provided by law", as indicated in the order.

The order, dated May 4, indicates that the court appreciates that the Generalitat assists reasons that justify the suspension from the perspective of the appearance of good law. "Therefore, the order adds, "it has only been considered applicable in cases of challenging acts applying provisions declared invalid, those that reiterate or are identical to others already annulled or in those cases in which the defects of nullity are manifest so that it is not necessary to examine them for their assessment. " And the Chamber does not believe that any of these circumstances exist in this case.

The Minister of Agriculture and Ecological Transition, Isaura Navarro, has shown the respect of her department to the dismissal of the precautionary suspension of the staggering of the ecological flows of the Tagus but "would have appreciated" that the Supreme Court "understood how agriculture works".

In the order, the court explains the reason on which the Generalitat based its appeal: the disagreement with the automatism with which the ecological flows are activated in the aforementioned ninth additional provision for the years 2026 and 2027, without taking into account the evaluations and measures resulting from the development of the Special Program for monitoring and control of the status of water bodies and the sustainability of the uses in the area of the Aqueduct-Tajo-Segura. The Valencian Government also explained that this automatism contained in the final wording of the standard "did not appear in the text submitted to the examination of the National Water Council" and that it may lead to the fixing of ecological flows being disproportionate "with the consequent damage to the uses dependent on the Tajo-Segura Transfer". According to his argument, the disproportionate increase in these flows can condition the transfer, with "the consequent damages, in the territorial areas concerned, on irrigation with a decrease in economic activity, increase in urban supply costs, loss of heritage value derived from the passage from irrigation to rainfed, data that quantifies and extracts from the Report of the Segura Hydrological Plan ".

However, the court endorses the position of the State Attorney's Office that exposed the restrictive nature of the suspension of general provisions and that, in addition, "the alleged damage is deferred in time and, in addition, is hypothetical, since it refers to a moment, 2026 and 2027, in which the process will presumably already be finished".