Following news that the European Commission was closing a file lodged by the ESG as run in the media a few weeks ago, the group is pleased to inform the local community that a letter has just arrived from the Commissioner’s office regarding the 14,000 strong petition from the Bay which was handed to him by MEP Neil Parish in 2007.

The Commissioner states that while not identifying a clear breach of directive he has nevertheless taken note of the concerns set out in our letter supported by the many thousands of signatures and will be writing to the Spanish authorities to ask how the CEPSA refinery is complying with the more stringent environmental directive IPPC 96/61.

We shall continue to monitor and provide information to the Commission as we recently did with Global expert Denny Larson’s technical report on the Refinery. Public pressure after sulphur dioxide escapes and flaring episodes by the Refinery last spring resulted in an independent audit on the plant commissioned by La Junta. This assessment is now complete and a public statement on this is expected any time now. All these developments and information will assist the EC technical staff in checking through the data and information sent to them by the Spanish Authorities.

‘The ESG is planning to visit the Commission in Brussels again after May 2008 to push for an independent inspection of Bay pollution generally and environmental compliance at the petrochemical plant more specifically.

ESG members Henry Pinna and Janet Howitt with legal adviser David Dumas QC from Hassan’s, hand in a petition of 14,000 signatures to MEP Neil Parish from all Bay communities including Gibraltar