Spain

The draft State Budget that was recently submitted to the Parliament by the Government has received strong criticism by the Friends of the Earth, Ecologists in Action, Greenpeace, SEO / Birdlife and WWF. The NGOs state that little weight is given to environmental protection in the expenditure forecasts for 2012. 

The areas of environmental policy included in the Budget envisaged suffer cuts of 21% - from €2,258 million in 2011 to €1,789 million this year, when the average cut spending by ministry is 16.9%. A clear undermining of the environment is therefore in the Budget. 

Some of the areas that are particularly hit include sustainable rural development through the Fondo Español de Garantía Agraria (Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund), which is reduced to €28 million from €200 million, and nature conservation, which is reduced to €190 million from €225 million in 2011. 

Instead, large investments that bear negative environmental impacts, particularly in energy, transport and defense, remain in place. This is announced by such infrastructure investments of €11,368 million. 

Sources: WWF Spain (in Spanish)