The GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group) is denouncing the laws on land acquisition and administrative simplification to the European Commission.

The GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group) has filed a complaint with the European Commission against the land acquisition and administrative simplification laws passed by the government of Marga Prohens, alleging they "violate European environmental law and the Water Framework Directive." According to the organization, these regulations represent "a complete break with European environmental law and jeopardize the islands' basic natural resources, especially water, an overexploited and fundamental resource in the context of the climate crisis." The complaint was formally registered earlier this week and is directed against the Balearic Islands' regional government and the Spanish government. With this action, as explained by GOB spokesperson Margalida Ramis, this completes "the legal and institutional offensive that the GOB has launched in recent months against the decrees and laws of the Prohens government that profoundly interfere in territorial and urban planning without adequate guarantees of participation, environmental oversight, and respect for regional powers." It is worth noting that in recent months the organization has already filed two appeals with the Constitutional Court and onecomplaint before the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body to UNESCO, regarding the effects on the Tramuntana mountain range. "It is the final, decisive, and strong push," he emphasized.

Ramis expressed confidence that this complaint to the European Commission would result in sanctions "both against the Spanish government, as it is responsible for ensuring compliance with the European regulations it has transposed, and against the Autonomous Community." Along the same lines, he raised the possibility that the European Union might open a process "that could last a year, but which will open a window for dialogue, because they will surely request more information from the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group), and from there they might decide to impose sanctions." For her part, Francisca Mas, a lawyer and member of the GOB board of directors, accused the Balearic Government of participating in "a suicidal race" and insisted on the need to preserve the islands' water resources. "The Executive Branch prioritizes profit and speculation over the principles of life. It seems their excuse for all these measures and plans is that we have a serious housing problem, but they ignore the thousands of empty homes. They are destroying all logic when it comes to legislation," he stated.

Delayed Consequences

The GOB representatives have focused particularly on the non-compliance with the European directive and the state law on water by allowing residential developments without requiring proof that water resources will be sufficient. They also warned of the violation of European regulations that establish the need for a strategic environmental assessment, which should be carried out "project by project," before promoting this type of urban development. Furthermore, in the opinion of the environmentalists, these plans "exclude or weaken" the mandatory reports and "impose" the precedence of strategic residential projects—the category created by the land acquisition law—over urban or territorial planning. Ramis considered that "the consequences of all these violations will not be seen immediately but rather later, which makes them even more dangerous because there is no immediate public reaction." Endangered species

The spokesperson for the Marine Conservation area of the organization, Xisca Mesquida, has highlighted the dangers that these laws, approved by the Balearic Government and ratified by the Parliament, pose to flora, fauna, and protected areas. One of the risks is that construction will be authorized on rural land "without environmental assessment," which will lead to the consolidation of buildings in areas near protected spaces, "without taking into account the effect on vulnerable species," she explained. "They violate the Habitats Directive, which is one of the most basic regulations of European environmental law and which obliges member states to assess any project or law that affects natural areas within the Natura 2000 network," she emphasized. Mesquida predicted that, considering the current environmental situation in the Balearic Islands, "many species could be harmed in the short and long term."