"As soon as this proposition is ruled out, expressly ruled out, so that there is not the slightest doubt with respect to the European Union, with respect to Unesco and with respect to the Spanish population, we will be delighted to collaborate with them." That is the condition that the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has set to enter into a negotiation with the Junta de Andalucía on the future of irrigation that threatens the Doñana park.
Ribera, who disdained the accusations of the PP that what happened with Doñana is a "brutal attack" by the Government against Andalusia –an expression of Senator Javier Maroto– ironizing about the impossibility of deceiving the European Commission, was very insistent regarding the complete rectification of the Andalusian government of Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla: "As soon as we have a legal framework that is compatible with European law, we can talk about whatever we want, but we are not going to negotiate illegalities."
However, the counselor admitted this Tuesday at a press conference about the European setback: "They say that our law is not going in the right direction."
The vice president recalled that both she, speaking with the Andalusian president, and his Secretary of State, Hugo Alfonso Morán, in communication with the Minister for the Environment, Ramón Fernández Pacheco, repeatedly reported the illegality of the initiative to expand irrigation for the wetland. "President Moreno Bonilla knew perfectly well the illegality of this situation." And he stressed that this was how the European Commission had transferred it to the counselor yesterday.
An understanding in this regard is considered impossible, since Fernández-Pacheco proposes a bilateral table with the central government because they say they are willing "to accept amendments, but not to withdraw the proposal" and they accuse the executive of having "broken all bridges with our land only for electoral interest.”
Despite the scolding from Brussels, this Thursday the PP spokesman in the Senate, Javier Maroto, insisted on his plan, arguing that it only affects "surplus" surface water. And, in unison with the Junta de Andalucía, he considers that there is a campaign orchestrated by the central executive against Andalusian autonomy for electoral reasons. In any case, the Board throws balls out: "Nothing has been approved", and Maroto insists that nothing will be approved without complying with the environmental requirements established by Brussels.
