Thursday, October 12, 2006
Comments further to the article in El País 12.10.2006. ¨Bruselas lanza hoy otro ultimátum al Consell porque la nueva ley urbanísticano subsana la anterior EP - Bruselas ¨
This is a very important development and essentially says the process of taking the LRAU/LUV to the EU Court of Justice is on track. If the law isn't amended within 60 days, Brussels is saying it will be taken to the Court of Justice. Recently the Minister ( Conseller) Gonzalez Pons says there was no way Valencia would comply-he probably reckoned that Brussels wasn't listening to what he said. The court has the authority to force changes , even in national or regional laws. Failure to comply can mean severe fines, court costs, the withholding of EU subventions, etc. It will be interesting to see how the Valecian Gov't tries to wiggle off this hook. No doubt Madrid will be accused of failing to "transpose" EU directives (true in some instances) to make them national law and the mutual blame game will go on for months. That may play out during the local and regional elections. The negative fall out will be more difficult for the Valencian Gov't simply because the national gov't would not have to face elections for another two years. It will be interesting to see how this will in the end affect the application of similar laws in other regions of Spain. This should also give some backing to the individual cases going forward to the European Court of Human Rights. That is because the European Commission and Commissioners are firmly pointing to serious breaches of EU law, which go beyond such technical questions as Public Contracts into areas of property and human rights. I hope to get an update on those from Irwin Mitchell in London very shortly. It is fair to claim that without our initiative, persistence and hard workover the past few years and the support of the EU Parliament's Petitions Committee, this never would have happened. CVS****
This is a very important development and essentially says the process of taking the LRAU/LUV to the EU Court of Justice is on track. If the law isn't amended within 60 days, Brussels is saying it will be taken to the Court of Justice. Recently the Minister ( Conseller) Gonzalez Pons says there was no way Valencia would comply-he probably reckoned that Brussels wasn't listening to what he said. The court has the authority to force changes , even in national or regional laws. Failure to comply can mean severe fines, court costs, the withholding of EU subventions, etc. It will be interesting to see how the Valecian Gov't tries to wiggle off this hook. No doubt Madrid will be accused of failing to "transpose" EU directives (true in some instances) to make them national law and the mutual blame game will go on for months. That may play out during the local and regional elections. The negative fall out will be more difficult for the Valencian Gov't simply because the national gov't would not have to face elections for another two years. It will be interesting to see how this will in the end affect the application of similar laws in other regions of Spain. This should also give some backing to the individual cases going forward to the European Court of Human Rights. That is because the European Commission and Commissioners are firmly pointing to serious breaches of EU law, which go beyond such technical questions as Public Contracts into areas of property and human rights. I hope to get an update on those from Irwin Mitchell in London very shortly. It is fair to claim that without our initiative, persistence and hard workover the past few years and the support of the EU Parliament's Petitions Committee, this never would have happened. CVS****
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