Mark Stucklin
Spain has been very naughty says EU Parliament
This morning the European Parliament voted on a report slamming Spain for all manner of evils in the country’s property sector.
The report, by Danish MEP (Greens) Margrete Auken, paints a depressing picture of developers and corrupt politicians trampling over private property rights and the environment in pursuit of their own enrichment, whilst the authorities look the other way.
The non-binding report, approved in a plenary vote by 349 in favour, 110 against, and 114 abstentions, lambasts Spain for:
- Violating individual property rights by forcing owners to “cede legitimately acquired private property without due process and proper compensation,” and “pay arbitrary costs for unrequested and often unnecessary infrastructure development.” (also known as ‘land grab‘ laws)
- Arbitrarily and retroactively using the 1998 Ley de Costas, or Coastal Law, to expropriate coastal property without compensation, and in a way that “impacts disproportionately on individual property owners who should have their rights fully respected” whilst leaving be the “real perpetrators of coastal destruction, who have in many instances been responsible for excessive urban development’s along the coasts, including holiday resorts.”
- Pursuing rampant, speculative building programmes with little regard for the environment, the needs of society, or Spain’s cultural heritage.
- Encouraging unsustainable macro-urbanisations without sufficient water resources.
- Violating EU public procurement procedures
- Failing to provide timely and meaningful justice, leading to a “widespread lack of confidence among the petitioners in the Spanish judicial system as an effective means of obtaining redress and justice.”
- Allowing corruption to become endemic, as a result of which “the EU citizen is the primary victim, but which has also caused the Spanish State to suffer significant loss.”
Recommendations
The problems it, there’s not much the EU can do about it, other than vote on non-binding reports like this – the 3rd such report in almost as many years.
That said, the report does have some moral authority, and might shame Spain into trying to do something to solve the problem. That’s better than nothing, but don’t hold your breath for any imminent improvements.
For what it is worth, the report approved today calls on Spain to tackle the many problems highlighted in the report, starting with a freeze on all contentious housing projects.
“Competent regional authorities should suspend and review all new urbanisation plans which do not respect the strict criteria of environmental sustainability and social responsibility and which do not guarantee respect for the rightful ownership of legitimately acquired property,” says the report, which goes on to call for a halt to “all existing developments where criteria laid down in EU law, notably as regards the award of urbanisation contracts and compliance with provisions relating to water and the environment, have not been respected or applied.”
The report also calls on Spain to compensate individual property owners who are “victims of urbanisation abuse who have suffered as a result of the application of the provisions of existing legislation.” The report also says that people “who have bought property in Spain in good faith, only to find that the transaction has been declared illegal, should have the right to appropriate compensation through the Spanish courts.”
The report also notes that the EU has the power to interrupt or delay structural and cohesion fund payments “in order to persuade a Member State to end serious breaches of the rules and principles,” another way of saying that Spain should be punished financially if it doesn’t address these problems.