The APB starts the strategic environmental study for the Special Plan for the Port of Eivissa
The Definition of the Port Area and its Uses (DEUP) programme has been processed in keeping with the established legal procedures, which do not require an environmental study.
Palma
06/04/2021
During March, the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB) has started the strategic environmental study for the Special Plan for the Port of Eivissa. This study, entrusted to a technical design office, is being carried out at the request of the Balearic Islands Environmental Commission, and will form part of the procedure for the creation of the Special Plan, which the APB will be able to complete once the Definition of the Port Area and its Uses (DEUP) has been approved.
The preparatory work for the creation of the Special Plan—an urban planning procedure for ports classified as installations of national importance, and which involves coordination between the public administrations responsible for the port area—started in March 2018 in the form of a technical commission formed by the APB and Eivissa Municipal Council. In December 2019 the APB transmitted the agreed draft of the Special Plan to the Municipal Council (the body responsible for approving it), together with a document requesting the initiation of the strategic environmental evaluation procedure.
This request was transmitted by the Municipal Council to the Environmental Commission of the Government of the Balearic Islands. In March 2021 the APB and the Municipal Council received a reply from the Commission, which, after carrying out the mandatory consultations, includes the technical considerations and scope for the undertaking of this study.
DEUP
For its part, the DEUP for the Port of Eivissa—a procedure used in ports classified as installations of national importance to identify the public port area in accordance with its current and foreseeable uses—is awaiting approval on the part of the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Planning.
The APB has processed the DEUP in accordance with the legal procedure established in the Revised Text of the Spanish Law for Public Ports and the Merchant Navy, including the mandatory process of citizen participation with public information and consultation with the public administrations affected and the persons concerned. These include the Department of the Environment and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Balearic Islands, which transmitted to the APB the observations taken into account for the final drafting of the document.
In this respect, the Spanish National Ports Authority, after receiving reports from the Spanish Solicitor General’s Office, declares that the processing of the DEUP does not require its submission to the formal procedure for strategic environmental assessment, which is however required for the Special Plan. Nevertheless, the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has participated in the process through the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and the Coastline, whose final report was favourable in keeping with the conditions established in the final document of the DEUP.
