Spain violates half a dozen articles of the European Social Charter. According to a resolution of the European Committee of Social Rights, advanced by The Country and to which elDiario.es has had access, the State has failed to protect families, minors and seniors affected for more than four years by the power outages in Cañada Real and who face another freezing winter without electricity in the autonomous community that boasts of being the richest in the country that boasts, in turn, of being the fastest growing in the European Union, but which, according to this resolution, has not adopted “adequate measures” to “guarantee housing “adequate” or to avoid affected people from diseases related to lack of supply.
Specifically, the Committee unanimously considers that Spain violates article 31.1 of the Charter, which commits its signatories to “favor access to housing of sufficient quality”; and 11, which guarantees the right to health protection, stating that the State has not done enough to eliminate the causes of poor health of these people or to prevent epidemic and endemic diseases.
The resolution goes further and points out that the power outages in the Cañada Real especially affect the little ones. In sectors 5 and 6, affected by the supply stoppage, there live around 1,800 boys and girls to whom, according to the Council of Europe, the State has not guaranteed their right to education. Also to older people, who are not enjoying their right, recognized by Spain, to social protection and a dignified life.
According to the document, “the Government maintains that the intensive marijuana plantations located in these sectors activate security devices installed by the electricity company Naturgy and thus cause a permanent blackout on the network.” However, the administration has not resolved the problem in four years, which, according to the complaining organizations, “has caused a serious impact on the lives of the people who live in” La Cañada.
The resolution does not stop only at the rights that the Spanish State violates. It gives concrete examples of how this neglect affects families that are not protected against poverty or social exclusion, children who do not have access to quality education, and vulnerable seniors. Given the lack of electricity, “affected households had to purchase, within their means, alternative sources of energy.” Second-hand solar panels, heaters, butane stoves, stoves or candles, which according to the organization caused “more than five fires and explosions with four serious injuries and the death of a man in 2023”, in addition to “25 poisonings caused by the contamination from gasoline generators and two candle fires” during last winter.
The Council of Europe speaks out following a claim presented by Workers’ Commissions, Defense for Children International, the European Federation of National Organizations that work with Homeless People, the European Association of Magistrates for Democracy and Freedom (Medel, by its acronym in Spanish). English) and ATD Fourth World. Specifically, the Committee admitted the complaint in October 2022 and required the Government to present allegations before December 15 of that year. The parties’ justifications were then extended until June 2023, including the observations of the third-party Ombudsman.
The Council had already asked then, in 2022, the Spanish Government to take “immediate measures” to resolve the electricity problems in La Cañada, without its demand having practical repercussions. The resolution, to which this media has had access, is already in the hands of the Executive and must be published, at the latest, on February 26, 2025.
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