The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared this Thursday that Spain has failed to comply with the European directive establishing a community framework in water policy and that relating to the assessment and management of flood risks in Lanzarote, as well as in Fuerteventura and La Palma.
In February 2023, the European Commission (EC) initiated an infringement procedure against Spain, considering that the country was in breach in relation to several hydrographic basins of these two directives.
In September of that same year, Brussels sent Spain a reasoned opinion, the second step in the community infringement process, considering that it was still failing to comply with the two directives.
In May 2024, the Community Executive brought an action for annulment against Spain, considering that the non-compliance persisted in hydrographic basins of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Palma.
The Commission alleges that Spain has failed to comply with the obligations established in this regard in the directive that sets the framework for action in water policy to the extent that it has not revised or updated the hydrological basin plans of the aforementioned hydrographic demarcations, despite the fact that the deadline for doing so expired on December 22, 2021, and therefore did not send those revised plans to the EC before March 22, 2022.
Secondly, Brussels also affirms that Spain has failed to comply with the obligations established in this regard in the directive on flood risk management by not having revised or updated, if necessary, the flood risk management plans of the aforementioned hydrographic demarcations, despite the fact that the deadline for doing so expired on December 22, 2021, and therefore did not send these plans to the Commission on the required date.
The CJEU ruling
In the ruling issued this Friday, the CJEU declares that Spain has failed to comply with both directives.
The court based in Luxembourg points out that, despite Spain indicating that, in the case of the hydrographic basins of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the final approval and publication of the hydrological basin plans and flood risk management plans took place in July and August 2024 (Lanzarote) and in September of that year (Fuerteventura) and were followed by a notification to the Commission by email on October 22, 2024, Spain had not fulfilled its obligations with respect to those plans on the date on which the deadline established by the Commission in its reasoned opinion expired (November 28, 2023).
Regarding the justification for the delay invoked in the La Palma basin (the volcanic eruption of September 2021), the CJEU recalls that a Member State facing momentarily insurmountable difficulties that prevent it from fulfilling the obligations incumbent upon it under Union law can only invoke the situation of force majeure during the period necessary to resolve those difficulties.
In this case, the court considers that Spain did not comply with its obligations derived from both directives until the written phase of this procedure ended.
According to the CJEU, it was almost a year after the deadline provided for in the reasoned opinion expired and four years after the unforeseeable event that it invoked as justification, in the case of the directive establishing a community framework for action in the field of water policy.
Regarding the directive on the assessment and management of flood risks, it was two and a half years after the deadline provided for in the rule expired.
