The Committee on Petitions of the European Union will visit the Region of Murcia from February 23 to 25 to examine ‘in situ’ the state of the salty lagoon
The next 23, 24 and 25 February, the Commission of Petitions of the European Union will visit the Region of Murcia to examine ‘in situ’ the state of the Mar Menor. During this visit, United We Can (UP) has prepared, together with the social and environmental groups, an agenda of contacts so that the European delegates listen to their demands and their analysis of how this situation has come about, “after years of warnings and studies signaling that Europe’s largest salt lagoon was headed for disaster.”
The spokeswoman for Podemos, María Marín, appeared this Friday morning together with José Luis Álvarez Castellanos, regional coordinator of Izquierda Unida, and the spokespersons for Ecologists in Action and the Pact for the Mar Menor, to explain that during these contacts “they will on the table, without ambiguity or excuses, the real data on pollution and its causes».
In addition, the purple deputy pointed out that from other parliamentary groups “they have tried to put a whole series of stones in the way” to avoid the visit of the Committee on Petitions to the Region of Murcia. After failing to do so, the purple formation criticizes that political parties such as Ciudadanos “have been much more concerned with hearing the voice of agribusiness lobbyists, such as the Ingenio Foundation, than with listening to social and neighborhood groups.”
In addition to facilitating contacts between the European delegation and environmental associations, United We Can explain to the Committee on Petitions two aspects that, according to Marín, “are essential to recover the Mar Menor.”
It is about the recognition of the legal personality and the project to create a Regional Park that addresses the protection of the lagoon and its entire coastline, “thus ending all discharges and putting an end to the pressure that the Mar Menor has suffered for decades. ». The spokeswoman for Podemos has highlighted that since its formation they will offer the European Commission “all the data and all the explanations about the area so that they can take note of it first-hand.”
For his part, José Luis Álvarez Castellanos, regional coordinator of Izquierda Unida – Verdes, has considered that, thanks to the work carried out by United We Can, there is “sufficient and important space to transmit to the Commission the message that the problem of the Mar Menor It is due to a number of tremendous external pressures”, among which he points out “mining, exaggerated urban development”, and especially “nitrate contamination from agribusiness and intensive livestock farming that occurs in the Cartagena countryside.”
Álvarez Castellanos advanced that they will explain to the delegation that “the solution involves action at source”, a thesis that “the European Commission also defends” and that the commissioner himself has stated “more than once and directly” to the regional government, that “turns a deaf ear to this issue”.
Lastly, from the social groups, the spokesperson for Ecologists in Action, Pedro Luengo, stressed that they will once again inform the Commission of “the legal breaches of European directives that are taking place in the Mar Menor and its surroundings, and the lack of proper management by public administrations.
Luengo expressed his hope that the European Union “remedies and forces compliance with these directives to protect the salty lagoon, which is getting worse and worse”, and pointed out that for this it is essential that other voices are also heard “apart from what the Administration can transmit through the reports».
For her part, Isabel Rubio, from the Covenant for the Mar Menor, showed her confidence in the European Commissioner for the Environment, “who fully agrees that action must be taken at source to solve the problem of nitrates in the Cartagena field” , which he points out as “the main source of contamination of the Mar Menor”.
“Now what we need is for the measures to be implemented with more urgency than what is being done at the moment,” claimed the spokeswoman for the Pact for the Mar Menor.