Friday, March 29

The European Parliament asks the Government of Murcia to apply the law to stop the deterioration of the Mar Menor

Discharges in the Mar Menor have to end. The Government of the Region of Murcia has to apply the law to make it possible. This is stated in the final report on the mission to the Mar Menor of the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee approved on Tuesday. But the autonomous administration has ended up getting rid of being directly pointed out of the worsening of the situation. Thus, the vote against by PP and Vox, together with the abstention of the PSOE, has prevented the report from including an amendment, presented by La Izquierda, which pointed directly to the responsibility of the regional government, led by the PP since 1995.

“The enormous environmental deterioration is a direct consequence of an unsustainable model of resource exploitation (including the massive extraction of groundwater and the abuse of agrochemical products) and of a disorderly and wild change in land use,” says amendment 2 , presented by Sira Rego (IU/La Izquierda): “All this has occurred despite the existence of numerous and exhaustive European, state and regional regulations. Thus, the bad practices carried out for years (especially by a large part of the agribusiness, but also the bad urban planning practices of developers and municipalities) have been aggravated by the passivity of the Administrations and, in particular, of the Autonomous Administration , which has most of the necessary powers to stop this situation”.

31 votes have been cast –9 from the European People’s Party; 7 from the Social Democrats; 6 from Renew Europe (Cs); 2 Green; 2 from The Left; and 3 ECR (Vox) and 2 not registered. Thus, the amendment of the Left has had 9 votes in favor; 8 abstentions and 14 votes against.

The socialists explain that their abstention from this amendment by The Left has to do with their support for another that they have presented, which calls for “developing, launching and implementing the measures contemplated in the Law of the Minor Sea, approved by the Regional Assembly of Murcia in July 2020”.

“The report that has been approved this morning, after the visit we made last February, unequivocally points out something that has the consensus of the scientific community: the irrigation of intensive agriculture, often illegal, is responsible for the degradation of the lagoon”, explains Sira Rego: “Murcian social movements and IU in the region, as petitioners, have achieved this victory. A victory that the extreme right tried to avoid with its amendments, which did not prosper. But there are also disappointing elements: the regional government of the PP has escaped being singled out as responsible for the situation, due to the PSOE’s abstention from one of our amendments. Having positive elements and others lacking in ambition, our final vote has been to abstain from the report”.

Marcos Ros, PSOE MEP, explained: “Our amendments demand specific facts from the government of the Region of Murcia.” And why have they not supported the other as Ciudadanos has done? “We believe that it was too general an amendment, ours go beyond simple accusations”, he declares, “the report has gone ahead and includes a clear message to end the dumping, a very tough report has been approved and the regional government must Take note of all the measures that are your responsibility.

Finally the complete report has been approved, with two votes against and four abstentions. In it, the end of polluting discharges, illegal irrigation and limiting urban planning are requested. Thus, the report calls for the elimination of illegal irrigation areas or the use of polluting pesticides, measures to combat water pollution, reduce intensive livestock farming, curb discharges of heavy metals from mountainous areas, recover very damaged and polluted areas of that coast.

According to the MEPs, all this is necessary to protect the health of the inhabitants of the area, and to put an end to urban discharges, improving the control of the sewage network, modernizing the treatment plants and putting in place measures to recover the necessary drainage network“.



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