DISCURSO A LA COMISIÓN DE PETICIONES DEL
PARLAMENTO EUROPEO
EN RELACIÓN A LA PETICIÓN DE “VEÏNS DE PARCENT”
28th November 2006
I would like to thank
the petitions committee for giving us the opportunity to present our case.
My name is Jacqui
Cotterill. I speak as the president of ‘Veins de Parcent’, an association of
Spanish and European residents formed expressly to fight the disastrous
developments proposed by Parcent Town Hall and part of a growing social protest
movement across Spain.
These proposed
developments consist of three integrated action plans, known as PAIs and the
proposed draft of a General Plan known
as a ‘concierto previo’,which was designed specifically for the promotion of
the PAIs. The PAIs were provisionally approved by Parcent Town Hall 2 days
before the LRAU was replaced by the new Valencian urbanising law LUV.The
‘concierto previo’ was approved by decree in July. They allow for the building
of 1800 houses on the mountainsides around Parcent, a village of just a
thousand inhabitants. The ‘concierto previo’ goes even further with provision
for up to 3200 new houses, and a tenfold increase in population. We consider
this totally unsustainble in relation to the impact on health, education,
infrastrure, local culture and the economy and of course the devastating effect
on the environment.
Our petition claims
that
‘My services will consider in
the context of the above Additional Reasoned Opinion and having regard to the
obligation of co-operation under Article 10 EC, the legal consequences stemming
from the award by Spanish authorities of public contracts in application of the
LRAU after the launch of a formal infringement procedure under Article 226 of
the Treaty’
We also point out that Parcent Town Hall have violated European
Directive 85/337/EEC as they have not provided an environmental impact report.
In addition, the EU Water Framework Directive has been ignored. This is
corroborated by a recent decision of the Valencian Ombudsman which recommends
the three PAIs be suspended due to the lack of a water report from the
competent river authority guaranteeing future water supplies whilst questioning
how Parcent councillors could even vote for PAIs without such a report. This is
a shocking failure given the continuing drought in the Valencian region.
We further claim that by including the PAIs in a ‘concierto previo’,
Parcent Town Hall are intentionally attempting to pervert the natural process
of town planning, which is to first approve a General Plan with consensus that
allows for sustainable development.
This point has been made in a
landmark ruling by the Superior Tribunal of Justice in Valencia, now known as
the ‘Parcent Doctrine’ which has ordered a precautionary suspension of the PAI ‘El
Repla’, stating that a PAI is not an adequate instrument for urban planning
especially in such a case, adding
‘It is enough that we are talking of a municipality of
little more than a 1000 inhabitants and that this action would at least double
the population.’
Despite this ruling, the resolution of
the Valencian Ombudsman and the condemnations of LRAU and LUV by the European
Union, the Ministry for Territory and Habitat of the Generalitat Valenciana
continues to vigorously defend the LUV, even challenging the European
Parliament to question it. Parcent Town Hall ignore and scorn their citizens
and our protest movement, going so far as to send the local police to stop us
collecting signatures for this petition and trying to throw a journalist out of
a public council meeting. They also scorn all resolutions against them,
continuing to spend public money on lawyers to appeal
the ‘parcent doctrine’ and going ahead with writing a general plan despite the court ruling.
We think this evidence of the
continual, blatant and arrogant disregard for European legislation demonstrated
both by the Valencian Government and Parcent Town Hall upholds our petition’s
claim that Spain has failed in its obligations to the principle of loyal
cooperation as required by Article 10 of the Treaty of the European Community
and thus requires an urgent response from Europe.
We want to make clear that we do not
want either these PAIs or this ‘concierto previo’. Since their proposal we have
felt tyrannized by our authorities and for this reason we are using all the
legal, institutional, political and social means available to us to fight the
proposals. But we never forget that for us this is not a theoretical fight. We
are talking about our village, our mountain, the view we wake up to every day,
the life we want for our children and grandchildren, which is why so many of us
have been moved to fight for its survival.
We thus ask the petitions committee to
recommend strong action be taken on our behalf
with the intended outcome being the annullment of the PAIs and
‘concierto previo’ allowing Parcent to start afresh and plan its future
development in the interest of all its citizens.
Thank you for your time and attention