Bill passes to allow expansion of farming in Spain’s Doñana national park

The Andalusian Government has approved a law that will allow the expansion of the irrigable area in the Doñana National Park in Huelva. The proposal obtained the support of PP and VOX with 70 votes, but was rejected by the parties of the left.

This is the second time that the law has reached the Andalusian Parliament in less than a year as it was opposed by the European Commission. The new proposal has some differences from the old one, but the most notable one is that the water used by the farmers of reclassified plots for irrigation would come primarily from the surface, never from the National Park aquifer.

Despite the modifications, this proposal has a large number of opponents and has already been rejected by the scientific community, the director of the Doñana Participation Council, environmental associations, the CSIC, the European Commission and the central Executive. The Ministry of Ecological Transition has already informed the European Commission that it is going to file an appeal before the Constitutional Court to prevent the approval of this law, in response to the letter that the European Union sent to the Spanish government warning that it would impose million-dollar sanctions if this were to be accepted.

With actors for and against, the support of Europe and the central executive will be essential. But Spain’s President Pedro Sánchez is very much opposed to this initiative. He said: “Doñana is the heritage of the Andalusians, of all the Spaniards and Doñana will not be touched.”