The confrontation between the European Commission and the Junta de AndalucÃa over the processing in the Andalusian Parliament of the irrigation plan in the area of ​​Doñana, which Brussels fears will have “disastrous” effects on the park, does not cease and this Friday has been experienced one more chapter.
A spokesman for the European Executive has disassociated the son of the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, from the matter after the number two of the Andalusian Government, the Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Sanz (PP), affirmed yesterday that he is not “missed” by the ” political positions” that the Commission is adopting because, according to what he said, it is the son of the minister who “does the papers and answers” on his behalf. Some statements that have been answered this morning by Planas himself, who has accused Juanma Moreno’s advisor of acting with “immense baseness.”
A spokesman for the Commission has confirmed that “regarding the accusations against an official” of the institution, alluding to the minister’s son, he has not been involved in the Doñana affair and has explained that the official “had revealed his personal situation in a conflict of interest statement. “His tasks for him take this into account to avoid any real or potential conflict of interest,” he clarified.
The spokesman also insisted that as “guardian of the Treaties, the Commission acts on infringements and on the execution of the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in a strictly collegiate manner”.
Regarding the controversy started by Sanz, Minister Planas himself, in an interview on TVE’s La 1, accused him of acting with “immense baseness” and pointed out that “this character” speaks with “absolute ignorance, knowing that he is lying”. and involving a person (his son) in the matter who “cannot defend himself because he has been a European civil servant by opposition for eight years”. He has added that his son is “an absolutely straight person, who has nothing to do with the file” on Doñana. These statements by Sanz “show that the PP is desperate,” added the head of Agriculture.
The new episode between the Community Executive and the Andalusian one occurs after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, endorsed yesterday through her spokesperson the action of the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus SinkeviÄius, on Doñana, who was accused on Wednesday by the leader of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, and the leader of the PP ranks in the Eurochamber, Dolor Montserrat, of “campaigning” in favor of the Pedro Sánchez government for his criticism of the proposed law on irrigation that the Andalusian Parliament debates.
Some accusations, those of the PPE, which were answered yesterday by the President of the Government himself and by several ministers, including the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, who accused the PP of trying to delegitimize the European institutions . “That’s good,” Sánchez exclaimed in Congress, while the PP spokesperson in Congress, Cuca gamarra, accused him of using the European institutions to “attack” Moreno in the middle of the electoral campaign.
The popular reaction against the Commission responded to the severe warning made on Tuesday by Commissioner SinkeviÄius to the Andalusian Minister for the Environment, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, who warned of the “disastrous effects” of the Board’s plan and reminded the central government that Even without these new actions, Spain does not comply with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU that condemned it two years ago for failing to protect this natural space.
