«With the sole aim that this 400 kv high voltage line is not executed through the Sierra de Las Estancias, and its environmental surroundings,» reads the petition registered in Change. Now, the aforementioned platform together with the Town Councils of Albox, Oria, Taberno and Vélez Rubio, represented by the law firm Serrano&Asociados abogados, urbanistas, denounce before the European Commission that the Development Plan for the Electricity Transmission Network 2015-2020, approved by Agreement of the Council of Ministers of 16 October 2015 , commonly known as the Energy Plan 2015-2020, breached Directive 2001/42 on the environmental assessment of plans and programmes, and Directives 2003/4/EC and 2003/35/EC on public access to environmental information and public participation in drawing up plans and programmes, in that, for its approval, it was not subject to the strategic environmental assessment procedure provided for in Law 21/2013 of 9 December 2013 on environmental assessment . The complainants argue that the Government circumvented the environmental assessment procedure of the aforementioned Law 21/2013, in violation of its First Transitory Provision. This 2015-2020 Energy Plan is the cause of the administrative file for the authorisation of the 400 kV high voltage overhead power transmission line, double circuit Baza-Ribina, which runs through the provinces of Granada and Almería, promoted by Red Eléctrica de España, and which is currently being processed.
They demand the application of the environmental criteria set out in the Strategic Environmental Statement of the «Plan for the Development of the Electricity Transmission Network 2021-2026», recently approved, which is subject to the environmental assessment procedure contained in Law 21/2013.