The fracture between the central government and the Junta de Andalucía on account of the future of Doñana and irrigation has moved to Brussels after the Executive of Pedro Sánchez has ratified before the European Commission his radical disagreement with the bill that they are promoting in the regional Parliament, the PP and Vox, questioning the Andalusian arguments and without giving any room for negotiation.
From Brussels the clash seems inevitable, but attention and hope are set on May 28. Community sources explain that they do not understand the Board’s decision and that the announced steps clearly go against what is established in European standards and the decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU. There will be no steps until the elections, but the Commission is confident that it can be reversed afterwards.
The role of the community institutions is being of a reasonably low profile, without loud statements or any desire to interfere in the pre-campaign and that their steps are interpreted in an electoral key. But with very clear warnings that do not leave much room for interpretation. The Ministry of Ecological Transition responded this Thursday in writing to the letter sent a month ago by the Director General of the Environment of the European Commission, Florika Fink-Hooijer, which was very harsh and warned that the process is heading to the courts and to petitions of fines. But since then there has been no more. They have asked for specific and detailed explanations because the preliminary assessment is that the changes announced by the Board would go against environmental legislation. And now, with the text received, they will study the next steps.
Eight months ago, in July, Brussels already demanded that our country execute “quickly and effectively the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of June 24, 2021 regarding the Doñana wetlands.”
In the letter now sent by Vice President Ribera, who met Commissioner Virginijus Sinkeviius in Stockholm a few days ago, the Government does two things, according to sources with access to the document. On the one hand, remember all the steps that have been taken in recent years to protect Doñana. The second part of the document includes the explanations of the Junta de Andalucía.
According to diplomatic sources, the message from the Spanish Executive is that they are obviously against those decisions of the Junta and share the diagnosis, but Andalusia claims the powers of its Parliament. They believe that an understanding is impossible right now, but perhaps it will be easier to tone down and even go back in June.
In the report sent to the Ministry of Ecological Transition so that, in turn, it could give explanations to Brussels, the Andalusian Government insists on an argument that it has not stopped repeating for weeks: the Doñana aquifer is not touched. Under no circumstances, the same as Doñana.
The document is signed by the general director of Protected Natural Areas, José Enrique Borrallo, is dated April 18 and in it the Junta de Andalucía emphasizes that the bill that proposes the regularization of irrigation in the area of ??Doñana “does not It is an initiative of the Andalusian Government”, but of Parliament and adds a nuance that is not trivial: it is not known, it comes to a conclusion, what will end up coming out of the chamber. At this time, adds Borrallo, “the mere parliamentary process does not imply any affectation” to the park.
In any case, the bill, the Board states, does not entail additional water concessions in the region. Simply, explains the high position of the Board, “a classification of irrigable agricultural land is established, always with surface water.”
It also affects the willingness of Juanma Moreno’s executive to explain directly to the European Commission the parliamentary initiative jointly with the central government and to establish bilateral commissions with it.
The report repeats the arguments that the president of the Junta, Juanma Moreno, conveyed to Teresa Ribera in a letter that he sent her on April 12. “The bill does not affect a single square centimeter of the entire Doñana Natural Area,” she told him in the letter.
Moreno emphasizes the need to work “hand in hand”, but stressing that, until now, he has not been “too successful” in reaching an understanding.
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