Parliament slams Spain over unchecked urbanisation 

It suggested in a report that the European Union freeze 35.1 billion euros of aid funds earmarked for Spain in 2007-2013 until it rectifies the abuse. 

"Local authorities have frequently given excessive powers to property developers and town planners at the expense of communities and residents of the area," said the report , presented by Green MEP Margrete Auken. 

The report, which was approved by 349 votes to 110, calls on Spain to suspend all new real estate developments which do not guarantee respect for private property and the environment. 

The document is the Parliament's third formal criticism of Spain's property sector, which Greenpeace said was burying its coastline under concrete at a rate of three soccer pitches a day in 2007. 

Built-up areas up to 2 km (1.25 miles) inland from Spain's coastline grew by 22 percent between 2000 and 2005, twice as fast as between 1987 and 2000, according to sustainability observatory OSE, cited on Monday by newspaper El Pais. 

Court cases involving councillors and mayors charged with illegally re-zoning land in lucrative deals with property developers regularly appear in Spanish national news. Spain's current recession, its worst in decades, has been aggravated by the collapse of a raging property boom. 

(EurActiv with Reuters.) 

Danish Green MEP Margrete Auken, author of the report approved yesterday, said she was delighted that the European Parliament has supported her report. 

"Today's vote pays tribute to years of work by the petitions committee and sets a fine example of how the European Parliament can be of direct service to European citizens," she stated. 

"But above all, today's vote is a victory for the tens of thousands of petitioners to the European Parliament, who turned to us as a last resort after a series of dead-ends in the Spanish administrative and judicial systems. These petitioners deserved a Parliament response that neither pulled punches in its criticism nor held back in proposing firm solutions. I am therefore satisfied that watered-down alternative resolutions from other political groups were rejected," Auken added.