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Date Published: 22/09/2021

ARCHIVED - Ecologists and Mar Menor residents demand greater EU intervention in environmental disaster

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Eco-groups call on visiting European Commissioner to oversee proper use of funds in Mar Menor

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Ecologists and Mar Menor residents demand greater EU intervention in environmental disaster

Representatives of environmental and neighbourhood associations in the Mar Menor area sent a petition to the Eurpoean Union’s Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, asking for “greater involvement” in the “deterioration” of the Mar Menor, as reported by SEO / BirdLife sources in a statement.

The petition is meant as a reminder that it has been 20 years since the first complaint about agricultural nitrate pollution in the Campo de Cartagena was filed by the Association of Naturalists of the Southeast (ANSE), and since then the measures promised by the Region of Murcia have not served “to prevent the deterioration” of the Mar Menor.

This formal petition, which has been drawn up by a coalition of SEO / Birdlife, ANSE, the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Cartagena and Region (FAVCAC), Ecologists in Action, Pact for the Mar Menor, the Association for the Fishing Development of the Mar Menor and its Environment (ADEPEN), and WWF Spain, coincides with a visit by Commissioner Sinkevicius to San Pedro del Pinatar yesterday morning.

The recent discovery of 8,500 hectares being illegally watered in the Campo de Cartagena around the Mar Menor is, the associations allege, “a tangible demonstration of the lack of control by the administrations”.

The organisations have urged the European Commission to promote joint management and participation bodies, and observers ‘in situ’ to implement real and credible actions to solve the serious environmental, economic and social problems of the Mar Menor and the Campo de Cartagena region. This involves a call for better use of EU funds and a review of the aid granted by the European Union for the conservation of the Mar Menor and for intensive agriculture in the Campo de Cartagena.

These “should follow the guidelines proposed for a new European economy, where nature conservation and sustainable development play the role they deserve, and the restoration of ecosystems and landscapes is also a priority in the Mar Menor and its surroundings,” according to the petition.

This isn’t the first call for help to EU in the Mar Menor

Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for the Environment

Some of these groups submitted a joint complaint to the European Commission back in September 2016 to reiterate the continuing non-compliance with the laws governing irrigation and the use of nitrates on farmland in the area, and urged the Commission to put pressure on the Spanish authorities to take effective measures to halt the degradation of the Mar Menor.

The EU’s response threw the buck back to the Region of Murcia and the Spanish government, but according to the ecologists concerned, “intensive agriculture continued to grow, investments were made in ineffective measures, and the deterioration of the Mar Menor increased.”

Image 1: Archive

Image 2: Wikimedia commons