Feature: Spain's Ebro Transfer - a major turnaround

Accountability and cooperation

(Author: Saren Starbridge)

Realising the scope of the issue, campaigners worked to stop the Ebro Transfer by demanding clear accountability in the EU funding process.

'If a project submitted to the EU is good, the approval goes ahead quickly,' Agrasot explains. 'Often it goes ahead even if there are complaints, because there is no follow up. This was a very big, very bad project. It had to be stopped, because there were other projects all over Europe waiting to see if this one went ahead. So we had to make a lot of noise.

The local people from the affected areas just knocked on doors, walked in, and began talking about the reality of their lives and what they would lose if the transfer went ahead. Everyone was very committed. The Commission (the body set up to approve the EU funding) was amazed; they had never received so many letters on any other issue.'

'The coalition of strategic campaigning and lobbying combined with good scientific research was extremely effective,' says Schmidt. 'This was a tremendous cooperative effort.'

Researchers provided the groundwork of information on the effects of climate change, weather patterns, changes in environmental flows, loss of biodiversity and movement of feral species. Where the previous Spanish government glossed over threats such as zebra mussels - listed by the IUCN as one of the world's 100 worst invasive alien species and already found in the Ebro - researchers had credible data to refute government claims that the mussels would not spread or could be easily eradicated.

Local platforms, outspoken and determined, kept the issue in front of the public, using the Internet, factsheets, and innovative demonstrations to keep people informed and active. International NGOs such as WWF lobbied the EU to demand that funding go only to projects which meet EU standards.

'It is important that countries follow EU legislation and water directives in developing projects,' says Agrasot. 'It is also essential that the EU have the capacity to assess and monitor projects, and stop any that contravene EU legislation. The process must be clear and manageable, especially with the influx of new countries joining the EU.'