Ibarbengoa car park — Breach of the Water Framework Directive

25.10.2017

Question for written answer E-006641-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Xabier Benito Ziluaga (GUE/NGL)

There are plans to build a park-and-ride car park at Ibarbengoa station in the Andra Mari district of Getxo (Biscay province). The underground car park will have 304 spaces on two floors. The car park is to be built just above Getxo-Bergara, one of Biscay’s bodies of groundwater, which is classified by the Basque Government’s water authority as a mixed aquifer, with a surface area of 601 m². No environmental impact assessment has been carried out on the car park plans.

The purpose of Directive 2000/60/EC (the Water Framework Directive) is to preserve and protect surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater.

1. Does the Commission take the view that the plans for the Ibarbengoa P&R car park are in accordance with the Water Framework Directive, which stipulates that an assessment of the impact of human activity must be carried out where surface waters and groundwater are concerned?

2. Is the Commission intending to demand that an environmental impact assessment be carried out before building work begins?