The protection of Doñana and the fight for water in its surroundings have become the scene of the political battle between the PSOE and the PP. Faced with repeated warnings from the European Commission (EC) for the lack of protection of this natural space, the spokespersons of the central government strive to point to the Junta de Andalucía as responsible for a possible million-dollar fine from the EU to Spain for failing to comply with the sentence that obliges to ensure its preservation.
The Government has deployed a whole strategy to surround the PP so that it renounces the bill that is being processed in the Andalusian Parliament to regularize illegal irrigation in the area of Doñana. This initiative has provoked the rejection of the scientific community and environmental groups, and is giving rise to repeated warnings from the European Commission. Meanwhile, the farmers' organizations in Huelva are divided.
The bill of the PP and Vox in the Andalusian Parliament – intended to legitimize some 750 hectares of illegal irrigation – has set off alarm bells in Brussels. Yesterday, the European Commission reiterated that these plans violate the ruling of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, of June 2021, which condemned Spain for not adequately protecting this natural space; In addition, he stressed that he will use "all means" to ensure that the authorities abide by it.
"If approved in the terms in which it has been announced, this bill could contravene applicable community environmental legislation," warns the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, in response to a parliamentary question posed by MEPs Javi López and César Luena (PSOE). If that were the case, warns Sinkevicius, the EC would consider "the use of all means available in the treaties to ensure that Spain effectively complies and without further delay with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)" on Doñana.
The mention of Brussels to the use of "all means" for Spain to comply with the order to protect the aquifers is a reminder of the next step that the Commission will take (take Spain back to court) for not complying with the sentence and to claim the imposition of fines.
The sanctions, which may consist of paying a fine for each day that compliance with the sentence is delayed, would potentially be in the millions. Last month, the EC's Director General for the Environment, Florika Fink-Hooijer, wrote a letter to the Spanish government in which she expressed her "astonishment" at the plans of the Andalusian Executive: the initiative, she said, "would significantly aggravate" the situation of Doñana”; and she warned that if her "strict protection" is not guaranteed, she would ask the CJEU to impose "pecuniary sanctions".
The Ministry for Ecological Transition, headed by Teresa Ribera, sent the requested information to Brussels yesterday (on the last day of the deadline to do so). The letter details the actions promoted by the Government to protect Doñana, while in its explanation, the Junta de Andalucía reiterates that the bill does not affect the park (something that scientists deny), that it is the result of a parliamentary initiative and that The separation of powers must be respected.
Minister Ribera reiterated her pressure. "I trust that the reminders from the European Commission and the confirmations about the risk that all Spaniards have to pay for this barbarity will make the PP reconsider, and that bill will remain in borage water," she says. Ribera asked Juanma Moreno Bonilla "not to go to Europe with stories"; and "to Mr. Feijóo, to put order in his party, if he is committed to European laws and to a space that is a World Heritage Site."
The debate has jumped to the European Parliament. The president of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, and the leader of the PP ranks in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, have written to the vice-president of the Commission, Frans Timmermans, to defend the Andalusian law proposal; They maintain that the plan “does not affect” compliance with the sentence, but rather resolves “historical problems”, and they request a meeting to explain it.
"Feijóo's PP is incapable of understanding the regulatory framework in which Spain operates and accepting the leading role of the Government in Brussels," replies Javi López (PSC). The MEP denounces that the PPE allows itself to be "instrumentalized to defend its electoral interests in Spain", due to its internal weakness. The response of the Community Executive, he concludes, "is a clear, explicit and timely warning" that the proposed management of irrigation in the area of Doñana "would clash with the European regulatory framework and the EC would act".
