The Lanzarote Water Consortium received this Thursday, October 1, the judicial notification of the contentious-administrative appeals filed by Canal de Isabel II against the agreements approved by the General Assembly on June 1 to terminate the integral water cycle concession contract and agree on the reversion and takeover of the service.
The proceedings are in their initial phase and Canal de Isabel II has not yet formalized the lawsuits on the merits. The Court now requires the Consortium to submit the administrative files, after which the company must specify the reasons why it seeks the annulment of the agreements.
The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Water Consortium, Oswaldo Betancort, states that "we are going to defend the legality of the agreements adopted unanimously by the consortium members, the Cabildo and the seven Town Councils, as well as the general interest of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, while we continue to work to improve the service."
Canal de Isabel II initially filed the challenge of both agreements in a single proceeding. However, by a ruling of September 11, the Court of First Instance of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria required them to be appealed separately. The company subsequently communicated the filing, on September 24, of a second specific appeal against the reversion agreement.
Precautionary measures
Although the lawsuits have not yet been formalized, Canal de Isabel II has requested precautionary measures on which the Court must rule. These requests do not constitute judicial decisions nor do they suspend the Consortium's agreements by themselves.
In the proceeding related to the termination of the contract, the company requests the suspension of the seizure of eight million euros in guarantees: six million in definitive guarantee and two million in complementary guarantee. Alternatively, it asks to limit its execution to 43.33% of its amount, a percentage it links to the approximately thirteen years of effective duration of a concession initially planned for thirty.
Canal de Isabel II maintains that the guarantees were constituted by it and not by Canal Gestión Lanzarote, and alleges that they would have been extinguished with the contractual assignment of 2013. It also argues that it is not appropriate to execute the guarantees in full before concluding the liquidation of the contract and quantifying the damages.
Betancort points out that "Canal de Isabel II was the initial contractor, it owns one hundred percent of Canal Gestión Lanzarote and assumed joint and several liability linked to the contract. Now it intends to disassociate itself from the guarantees constituted to respond to that concession. The Consortium will respond to these arguments before the Court, with the support of the legal services of the Cabildo”.
In the procedure against the reversion, Canal requests that the Consortium be subrogated in the contracts and legal relationships with third parties affected by the service that the previous concessionaire maintained. It also claims access to documentation, computer applications, and facilities that it considers necessary to settle the concession.
The Consortium maintains that the reversion has been in effect since June 2, when it effectively assumed direct management of the integral water cycle. Since then, it has maintained the continuity of the service and has been processing its own contracting procedures to provide the necessary services, without automatically assuming the private contracts of the previous concessionaire.
Response to criticism about transparency
The judicial communication also allows clarification of an issue that had occupied part of the political debate in recent months. The Consortium received the documentation sent by the Court today, October 1, 2026.
Regarding the accusations of lack of transparency by the PSOE, Betancort states that "it is, to say the least, curious that for weeks the Socialist Party publicly accused the Consortium of hiding a judicial action that had not yet been communicated to the institution itself. Now we know that the PSOE was correct in announcing that a procedure existed. The conclusion is simple: it seems that some knew of its existence before the Consortium itself”.
The president adds that "the Consortium could not hide a lawsuit that it had not received or known about. Once the judicial communication has been received, we will do exactly what is appropriate, which is to incorporate the documentation into the administrative procedures, report it to the Consortium's bodies, in this regard the president has already contacted the consortium mayors, send the requested files to the Court and exercise the legal defense of the agreements adopted by the Assembly”.
The Consortium will formulate the corresponding allegations to the precautionary measures requested and will continue managing the supply, sanitation, and treatment of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. “Our responsibility is to defend the interests of the citizens and continue improving the integral water cycle. That will continue to be our priority throughout the judicial process,” concludes Betancort.
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