Spain’s Prime Minister and the European Union’s environmental chief on Thursday slammed a plan by right-wing lawmakers to expand water rights for farmland around some of Europe's most important wetlands amid a prolonged drought.
The center-right Popular Party and far-right Vox movement first proposed rezoning land around Andalusia's Doñana national park in March, and regional lawmakers backed the plan last week. The bill’s critics say this would effectively offer an amnesty to farmers already using illegal wells to tap into the Doñana aquifer to grow strawberries, blueberries and raspberries for export across Europe.
