The Guadalquivir dredging project has been cancelled by the Supreme Court in a ruling. The project, which aimed to carry out improvements in the river estuary and the Doñana National Park at the port of Seville, sought to facilitate the arrival of larger vessels. However, it was controversial from the outset, particularly among environmental groups.
The Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court has partially annulled the project based on principles of the Water Framework Directive and the Hydrological Planning Regulations, determining that the project does not specify the reasons for its development. For this reason, the reform plan ceased to be considered a "complementary measure" to the environmental section, thus siding with the environmentalists who opposed the potential damage or impact on one of Europe's most protected areas, referring to Doñana National Park.
The court held that the justification for carrying out the dredging “cannot be made after the plan has been approved.” It cited three reasons. First, because the framework directive and the planning regulations expressly prohibit it. Second, because current environmental legislation, which is much stricter, requires that the justifications for a project of this impact be fully developed from the outset of the plan, not after its approval. And the third reason is that allowing the dredging would diminish the effectiveness of the plan and be incompatible with its nature as a genuine action program.
