Ley de costas may be reformed

By admin on Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Published in: Blog

Congress has recently opened a discussion on whether or not to water down the harsh Ley de Costas, under which Spain nationalised it’s coasts in 1988 (but didn’t expropriate land until recently).

CiU, the Catalan nationalist party, and Coalicion Canaria, the Canary Coalition, are both asking for the law to be watered down. The PSOE refuse point blank to change it, the PP are cautious about the law and agree in principle that it’s a tad harsh.

The idea seems to be to introduce another law, the Law on the Marine Environment, that would update the old one.

Since Spain is currently arguing that the Costas law is just in front of the ECHR in Brussels, the PSOE don’t want to change it (lack of face, etc).

The Ley de Costas is such a horrendous cockup of a law that even the environmentalists want to change it, arguing that it hasn’t protected Spain’s coastline, and has caused immense harm to the economy and environment.