WRITTEN QUESTION E-1431/03 by Pierre Jonckheer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Open-cast coal mine in northern Leon (Valle de Laciana, Spain).
Date: 2003-04-24
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Castile-Leon, coal mining, environmental impact, environmental law, environmental protection, impact study, mining operation, project management

C 78 E/32

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

(2004/C 78 E/0032)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1431/03

by Pierre Jonckheer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(24 April 2003)

Subject: Open-cast coal mine in northern Leon (Valle de Laciana, Spain)

On 14 June 1999, the Department of the Environment and Regional Planning for Castille and Leon
adopted the environmental impact statement for the exploitation of the Fonfría open-cast mine in view of
the measures proposed in the environmental restoration plan and monitoring plan, with it being
understood that these measures would help improve the current state of the environment and leave the
landscape much the same as it was originally. This approach is inadmissible because it fails to take into
account many factors.

In particular (1):

(a)

extraction estimates for the mine are for 18 579 705 cubic metres, 3 500 000 cubic metres of which
will be deposited on two slag heaps. Slag is currently being tipped in the Fonfría watercourse, as a
result of which the spring itself has disappeared under the waste, despite the fact that it was supposed
to have been protected under the corrective measures proposed;

(b)

the northernmost slag heap juts into a Community-financed area of afforestation;

(c)

(d)

the environmental impact assessment makes no mention of the existence of lakes which are of great
ecological importance or of the various other springs besides Fonfría. Neither is any reference made to
the changes to or the disappearance of various streams or of a large area of juvenile oak trees resulting
from a series of forest fires (in the Orallo mountains);

the environmental impact survey was carried out in isolation, as if this were the only mine in the area,
without taking into account the proximity of other mines (including Feixolín), certain cuttings that
have already been mined out, others which are currently being exploited, cuttings that are in the
process of being authorised and several others at the study stage. The end result will be a large scar
several kilometres long and the destruction of thousands of hectares.

Will the Commission investigate these issues? Does it not think it should order the suspension of mining
activities and require that the environment be restored and the respective European funding repaid (2)?

(1) Detailed documentation on the subject was presented to the European Commission by the Asociación Laciana para
la Defensa de la Naturaleza (Laciana Environmental Protection Association) on 18 May, 9 July and 10 October
2002, file No 2001/4914, SG(2001) A/10264. See also Written Question E-1892/02.

(2) As the Commission itself has indicated, the company MSP has received millions of pesetas from the Regional
Government of Castille and Leon, in line with decisions relating to the ECSC, since the Coal Plan was implemented
in 1998. This aid is completely at odds with the aid received between 1992 and 1996 for LIFE projects for the
conservation of brown bear populations and their habitats in the Cantabrian Hills (ECU 8 625 266, 75 % of which
was paid by the EU).

(2004/C 78 E/0033)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1432/03

by Pierre Jonckheer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(24 April 2003)

Subject: Open-cast coal mine in northern Leon (Valle de Laciana, Spain)

On 14 June 1999, the Department of the Environment and Regional Planning for Castille and Leon
adopted the environmental impact statement for the exploitation of the Fonfría open-cast mine in view of
the measures proposed in the environmental restoration plan and monitoring plan, with it being
understood that these measures would help improve the current state of the environment and leave the
landscape much the same as it was originally. This approach is inadmissible because it fails to take into
account many factors.