The Doñana crisis worsens. The bill that PP and Vox have promoted in the Andalusian Parliament to regularize some 800 hectares of illegal irrigation in the area of Doñana could further deteriorate the state of conservation of this valuable natural enclave, according to scientists (CSIC), ecologists and other experts. But if the processing of this initiative ends, there is another added risk: that new sanctions and coercive fines are imposed against Spain. This is the threat that the European Commission reiterated yesterday.
After learning about the PP and Vox bill (presented on March 3), the European Commission already sent a letter to the Spanish government in which it warned that, if the processing of this proposal prospers in the terms announced, it will be would be producing "a flagrant violation of the provisions of the Court of Justice ruling" of June 2021. In that ruling, Spain was sentenced by the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to comply with its obligations derived from the framework directives on Water and of the Habitat directive. He was condemned for the excessive and illegal extraction of water for crops and for "not having foreseen any measure to avoid the alteration caused" by these captures on priority habitats.
The risk that exists is that the Commission initiates a new procedure which, in this case, would already entail a sanction. Spain is already paying millions in fines, for example, for insufficient wastewater treatment. The European Commission, specifically, reserves the possibility of adopting "all necessary measures, including the filing of a new appeal before the Court of Justice in which it would request that financial penalties be imposed."
"I would like to insist that it is necessary to immediately guarantee the strict protection of the exceptional natural values of Doñana, especially taking into account the current context in which rainfall is increasingly irregular due to climate change," he writes in that letter. Florika Fink-Hooijer, General Director of Environment to the ambassador-representative of Spain.
Yesterday, once again, Brussels raised this threat, recalling that there is "solid" scientific and technical evidence on the "adverse effects" of the overexploitation of its groundwater. "If necessary, the European Commission will have the possibility of adopting new measures to ensure that Spain complies with the judgment of the Court of Justice on Doñana," said community spokesman Tim McPhie. The Community Executive is "analyzing" the "observations" sent by the Spanish authorities in the framework of that file.
"This is the third warning from the European Commission, and it is already known that this institution is like a bulldozer, slow but crushing," warns Juan Carlos del Olmo, general secretary of WWF, an organization that promoted the conservation of Doñana in the 1960s and who filed the complaint that gave rise to all this litigation ten years ago.
The Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, reminded the president of the Junta, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, of all this, sending him the letter from the Commission accompanied by a personal text. "The protection of Doñana is a matter of maximum environmental, social and legal interest, both for Spaniards and for European institutions and nature lovers worldwide," stressed the minister.
The Court of Justice of the EU, based in Luxembourg, sentenced Spain in 2018 to pay 12 million euros to the community budget for the deficient treatment of wastewater in 17 towns. In addition, it forced the Government to pay a coercive fine of 10,950,000 euros for each semester of delay in the application of the measures to comply with a conviction of 2011. The coercive fines are paid according to the seriousness of the infringement of European law and are reduced if the required measures are met.
If the bill is finally approved, it is certain that the central government will file an appeal for unconstitutionality, since this parliamentary initiative grants water rights to rainfed farmers (based on a possible transfer of the Tinto-Odiel-Piedras rivers), a power that corresponds to the central administration.
On the other hand, the prestige of Huelva red fruits and their possible reputational damage are at stake. There are signs of concern in the European markets, whose consumers refuse to accept "illegal strawberries". In fact, WWF promotes that these exports are accompanied by certificates of legality of water and soil. The legal framework for European markets was defined by the so-called Forest Crown Plan. But if they regularize new hectares of illegal irrigation, legal and illegal products will be mixed in the shopping cart.
Another derivative of this regulation is that farmers with dry land and who irrigate illegally will see irrigation rights recognized for when a transfer arrives from Tinto-Odiel. But, for the time being, the mere recognition is going to lead to a revaluation of the dryland hectare (and it would go from between 6,000 and 10,000 euros per hectare to between 60,000 and 100,000 euros per hectare according to some estimates). "A big hit is at stake," sums up Del Olmo.
