Regret over closure of Valencia port petition
Press release from the European Free Alliance (EFA) in the European Parliament
The European Free Alliance (EFA) Group in the European Parliament has expressed regret that the Parliament's Petitions Committee has decided to close a petition concerning expansion of the port of Valencia.
As such the committee will not look into the complaint of a private citizen on the project to expand the port and the need to draft a new Environmental Impact Assessment. The decision has been taken thanks to the votes of Spanish MEPs from the Partido Popular and Spanish Socialists who, with this manoeuvre, prevent the issue from continuing to be addressed in the Petitions Committee.
EFA is committed to keep working to ensure that the Environmental Impact Assessment - drafted in 2007 and based on a 1989 law - is in line with current European legislation on environmental protection and the fight against climate change, much stricter today than 15 years ago.
President of the EFA Group in the European Parliament Jordi Solé said:
“Europe cannot ignore that the Port of Valencia is 8 km from El Saler, a regenerated dune system essential to deal with extreme weather events such as rainstorms, or the Albufera Natural Park, a protected wetland fundamental to capturing CO2 and tackling Climate Change".
Furthermore, Danish Greens/EFA MEP Margrete Auken acknowledged that she was stunned to see that the port is now four times larger than the project drafted in 2007. “We must keep the petition open or we will be the laughing stock of all ”, she complained during the session.
The maritime transport sector is one of the most polluting and contributes the least to the European Union's reduction targets. Reportedly, the company that will operate the Port, MSC, generated 11 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2018, positioning itself as the eighth most polluting in the world.
