Dozens of organizations sign PROTEJO complaints to the European Commission (w/audio)

Dozens of organizations, a total of 27, signed the complaint presented to the European Commission by the proTEJO Movement, alleging “non-compliance with the Water Framework Directive” due to “the non-implementation of ecological flows in the Tagus River by Spain and Portugal”, announced the environmentalist structure.

“This support is extremely important, we have 27 organizations that are signing this complaint to the EC for the non-implementation of ecological flows in the Tagus River, namely in the Cedillo dam, in Spain, located on the border between Portugal and Spain,” the door told Lusa. -voice of the Tagus Movement – ​​proTEJO, based in Vila Nova da Barquinha, having indicated the membership of “environmental, social, cultural organizations and local authorities”.

The list of participating organizations includes the League for the Protection of Nature, ZERO – Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável, the Plataforma de Toledo en Defensa del Tajo, Quercus – Association for Environmental Conservation, the Alto Tejo and Nature Studies Association Portugal / WWF, and the municipality of Vila Nova da Barquinha, among others.

According to Paulo Constantino, what is “required” in the complaint filed by proTEJO on March 18, “is that community law be complied with, namely the Water Framework Directive (…) so that an ecological flow regime can effectively be implemented in the Tagus River” as provided for in the Albufeira Convention”, a treaty that regulates the management of rivers shared by Portugal and Spain.

Speaking to Lusa, on the day the movement presented the complaint to the EC, Paulo Constantino recalled that “a transitional regime of minimum flows in the Tagus has been in force for 25 years, set politically and administratively, while the Water Framework Directive itself provides that there be the implementation of ecological flow regimes”.

Regular and continuous ecological flow regimes, established with respect to seasonality, aim to provide the water flows necessary to sustain ecosystems in coexistence with agriculture, industry and urban networks.

The Albufeira Convention (CA) integrates the provisions of the European Union’s Water Framework Directive, creating a framework of cooperation and coordination for the protection of water bodies, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and for the sustainable use of water resources, but the PROTEJO emphasizes that it is not being complied with by both countries, which causes “ecological, economic, social and cultural damage”.

“We have had a minimum flow regime in force for 25 years, to the detriment of European legislation, the national legislation of Portugal and Spain and the CA itself”, declared Paulo Constantino.

“It is on this basis that we present this complaint, on the basis of Community law, Spanish law and Portuguese law”, he added, having welcomed today the accession of 27 organizations.

“It is the turning of a page, in which proTEJO has been fighting for this for 14 years, and is finally becoming aware of the need to take this position and in view of the risks of reversible pumping construction projects in the Alcântara and Valdecañas, which could limit water inflows from Spain”, he declared.

The proTEJO has also “already warned and appealed to the municipalities of the Tagus basin, its inter-municipal communities (Lezíria do Tejo, Médio Tejo, Beira Baixa and Alto Alentejo) and the Lisbon metropolitan area (AML), to take a responsible position demanding to the governments of Portugal and Spain to implement an ecological flow regime in the Cedillo dam on the Tagus River”, he noted.

The complaint to the European Commission has 40 pages with 14 points and asked for “speed” in the analysis of the process, a situation that Constantino said was happening.

“They acknowledged receipt of the correspondence and announced that the complaint was forwarded to the competent services of the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment and that it will be subject to analysis and monitoring by them. They have been quick to respond,” he said.

In the participation, to which Lusa had access, a characterization of the Tagus river basin is made, going through what the movement defines as the “obsolete flow regime” of the Albufeira Convention, the “variability of the flow of tributaries to Spain” and the “scientific incoherence of the ecological flows of the Hydrological Plan of Spain”.

The project highlights the “negative impacts of not implementing an ecological flow regime” and how “Portugal and Spain do not comply with the United Nations (UN) Water Convention”, and expresses concern about the “projects to install two reversible hydroelectric plants (upstream pumping) in the Alcântara and Valdecañas dams by Iberdrola”, Spanish hydroelectric plant.

Environmentalists also intend to assess the need to build more infrastructure (dams and dams) only after the implementation of an ecological flow regime in the Cedillo dam.

w/LUSA