Spanish mines under the magnifying glass of the European Parliament

Spanish mines under the magnifying glass of the European Parliament

· Some of the mining projects approved in Spain would be illegal according to the legislation of countries such as Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador or Peru.

· The European Commission has financed “soft counterinsurgency” projects in Spain to force the acceptance of new mines.

Ecologists in Action testified today during a public hearing on the social and environmental impacts of mining in the EU organized by the European Parliament. Elena Solís, coordinator of the Mining area of the environmental organization, has illustrated the non-compliance with European directives by exposing several cases of Spanish mines such as Río Tinto (Huelva), Cobre las Cruces (Seville) or San Finx (A Coruña).

The American hydrologist Steven H. Emerman has also warned that in many aspects European standards regarding the safety of mining facilities are far behind those of countries such as Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador or Peru, where the techniques applied to some projects in Spain and Portugal they would be illegal. Emerman used data from the Touro, Río Tinto and San Finx mining projects to highlight these deficiencies and warn Parliament and the Commission that “they should not be in such a hurry to open new mines or expand existing ones without first convincingly demonstrating that they do not "adverse effects will occur on the environment and the population."

Next, Alexander Dunlap, a researcher at the University of Oslo, has criticized the European Commission's financial support for “social license” projects that, according to his research, “are based on military counterinsurgency techniques and manuals.” In the last five years the Commission has allocated more than 100 million euros to “soft counterinsurgency” projects for the “acceptability of mining” that seek to “weaken the capacity and will of affected communities to identify and report corruption and harm.” ecological damage caused by mines.

Ecologistas en Acción has defended before the European Parliament that the cases of violations of European legislation “are not isolated cases, but are a systematic consequence of corruption and indifference.” Faced with these environmental and social impacts, Elena Solís has demanded “support for environmental organizations and local communities, empowering them to exercise their rights and obligations of active environmental citizenship in the face of the mining boom that threatens to turn European peripheries into an extractivist 'Wild West'. ”.