Impact of construction of the southern Pedralba bypass

Subject: Impact of construction of the southern Pedralba bypass

Construction of the southern Pedralba bypass [the Variante Sur de Pedralba] will destroy part of the agricultural area in the Turia nature reserve (Valencia, Spain). This area has been granted environmental protection by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)1, is on the List of Wetlands of International Importance2, belongs as well to the Natura 2000 network (as a SCI and a SPA) and has been declared by the UN to be a globally important agricultural heritage system3.

The regulations applied by the Regional Department for Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition do not afford this area sufficient protection, the environmental impact study is severely lacking and the damage done by the project will be irreversible. All this makes an infringement of Directive 2014/52/EU4 on the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment or of Directives 2009/147/EC5 and 92/43/EEC6 more than likely.

1. Will the Commission ask the competent authorities to stop the project because it infringes environmental legislation?

2. 2. Will the Commission take steps under Directive 2014/52/EU and the Habitats Directive to ensure that the Natura 2000 site affected by construction of the southern bypass is protected?

1 https://www.iucn.org

2 https://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/library/sitelist.pdf

3 http://www.fao.org/3/I8642EN/i8642en.pdf

4 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0052

5 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009L0147-20190626

6 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:01992L0043-20130701

Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius on behalf of the European Commission (1 March 2021)

It is for the Spanish authorities to assess if the project referred to by the Honourable Member affects significantly the Special Protection Area (SPA) (7) designated by Spain under the Birds Directive (8), which is an integral part of the Natura 2000 network. If this is the case, the competent authorities should ascertain through an appropriate assessment that it would not adversely affect the integrity of the site. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive (9) furthermore requires that projects for the construction of motorways and express roads (10) be subject to an environmental assessment prior to receiving development consent.

The Commission takes due notice of the concerns raised by the Honourable Member as regards the assessment carried out by the Spanish authorities in this case, but does not possess sufficient elements to identify a breach of the relevant provisions of EC law. Moreover, the Commission notes that the EIA Directive provides for access of the public to review procedures before a court of law or an independent and impartial body to challenge the substantive or procedural legality of decisions, acts or omissions in the context of an environmental impact assessment procedure. The means of redress available at national level constitute the most appropriate mechanism to deal with the issues of concern for the Honourable Member (11).

⋅1∙ https://www.iucn.org

⋅2∙ https://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/library/sitelist.pdf

⋅3∙ http://www.fao.org/3/I8642EN/i8642en.pdf

⋅4∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0052

⋅5∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009L0147-20190626

⋅6∙ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:01992L0043-20130701

⋅7∙ Alto Turia y Sierra del Negrete (Site Code: ES0000449).

⋅8∙ Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds, OJ L 20, 26.1.2010. p. 7.

⋅9∙ Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on

the environment, OJ L 26, 28.1.2012, p. 1‐21), as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014, OJ L 124, 25.4.2014, p. 1‐18.

⋅10∙ Referred to in Point 7 b) of Annex I thereof.

⋅11∙ As laid down in Communication from the Commission — EC law: Better results through better application C/2016/8600 — OJ C 18, 19.1.2017, p. 10‐20.