The Contentious-Administrative Court Number 3 of Las Palmas has archived one of the lawsuits open between Club Lanzarote and the Island Water Council, approving the agreement reached between the company and the president, Pedro San Ginés, which was not approved by the Council or by the Water Consortium. That agreement "voids and therefore annuls" a decree signed by San Ginés in 2016, which was the origin of this contentious lawsuit.
With that decree, which was appealed by the company in the courts, San Ginés had revoked the authorization that Club Lanzarote had since 2004 to produce water. Now, the president acknowledges that the company has that "right", despite the alleged absence of authorization was one of the reasons he cited to seize the desalination plant and the Montaña Roja treatment plant, for which he is charged in another proceeding in the criminal court.
In addition to that criminal case, Club Lanzarote and the Water Council are immersed in several contentious administrative lawsuits – both for the seizure and for the measures taken later by San Ginés, when the Justice forced him to return the plants-, and one of them is the one that has now been archived. In this procedure, both parties agreed to submit to mediation, and the terms of the agreement they reached are the same as those contained in the agreement that Pedro San Ginés intended to sign this summer with the company, and which was not endorsed either by the Island Water Council or by the Water Consortium.
Meetings and cancellations without managing to approve the agreement
In the case of the former, it did not even meet, since San Ginés convened and then cancelled a session of this body. As for the Consortium, it was also convened and cancelled, although finally a meeting was held. However, despite the majority that CC still holds in this body, the content of the agreement was not even approved or its signature authorized, but only its "remission" to the Courts.
At that time, different opposition parties denounced that with this agreement, the president intended to "influence" or "evade his criminal responsibility" in the case for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, in which he is charged with a crime of prevarication and another of coercion after the complaint filed by Club Lanzarote.
Now, the court order to which La Voz has had access shows that the same terms of that agreement were brought to the Court as an "agreement reached by the parties". And among other things, it means recognizing "the right" of Club Lanzarote to produce water in Montaña Roja. As for the sale, the agreement states that it will be carried out by the Water Consortium, but in practice it will remain in the hands of Club, since the "management of the billing" will be "transferred" to it.
The agreement establishes that "for this service, Club Lanzarote will receive the full billing". In return, it must pay a fee of 15 percent "of what is billed for all services", which will be settled annually. However, a good part of the water supplied by the desalination plant will be exempt from the payment of that fee. And the agreement also establishes that the company may use the desalination plant for the "self-consumption of the Natura Palace hotel, as well as any other consumption of Club Lanzarote (offices, hotels, villas…)". And the purified water that Club Lanzarote uses to water the gardens and that will be used for the future golf course planned in this partial plan will also be considered self-consumption.
The Council will "renounce" all the files opened to the company
The agreement that San Ginés presented in the Courts also establishes that the Council will "renounce" all the files that it opened to the company and that were processed after carrying out the seizure. And it is that when this precautionary measure was adopted, the president did not have any written report that endorsed or proposed it, nor had any previous files been opened.
As for the authorization to produce water, which is what this contentious procedure that has been archived focused on, Club Lanzarote had this permit since 2004 and requested an extension in 2012. At that time, the Council did not respond to that request and claimed that it had been denied by administrative silence, but the courts have already overturned that thesis. "It lacks legal basis", stated the first judgment of the TSJC that annulled the seizure. In this regard, he recalled that the regulations establish that the termination of the concession must be declared by the Island Council "expressly and in an adversarial file" in which the interested parties are heard and, in this case, stressed that "such adversarial file is conspicuous by its absence".
Shortly after that ruling arrived, what San Ginés did was sign a decree revoking the authorization to Club Lanzarote. Afterwards, he opened a new file and transferred it to the Government of the Canary Islands so that it could take measures against the company for operating without a permit to produce water. Now, with this judicial agreement, the president agrees to void his own decree and grant the extension of the authorization requested by Club four years ago, which "will be valid until the complete reception of the urbanization works by the Yaiza City Council".