29 Jun Municipalities along the Minho River submit Institutional Declaration to the Government of Spain, calling for a political response to the river’s challenges

The municipalities located along the Minho River submitted, on Friday, 26 June, an Institutional Declaration to the Government of Spain, calling for a coordinated political response to the challenges affecting the international stretch of the river.

The declaration was presented in A Coruña during a meeting of the International Standing Committee of the Rio Minho Pact with the Delegate of the Government of Spain in Galicia, Pedro Blanco Lobeiras. The meeting focused on the main challenges facing the river and on the need to strengthen coordination between Portugal and Spain.

The document highlights that the Minho River is a strategic environmental, social, economic and cultural asset for both countries. However, it stresses that its main challenges continue to receive insufficient political attention. It draws attention to the worsening of siltation, loss of navigability, coastal erosion, river flow management, the spread of invasive species and ecological degradation, calling for the development of a Joint Operational Plan for the Minho River, with clearly defined priorities, identified responsibilities and effective implementation capacity.

Pedro Blanco Lobeiras committed to conveying the declaration and the concerns raised to the Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen Muñoz, as well as to the Secretary of State for the Environment. He also undertook to present to the Minister of Foreign Affairs the proposal to hold a future Portuguese-Spanish Summit within the territory of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Rio Minho. The possibility of organising a visit to the territory by senior representatives of the Spanish Government in the field of the Environment, accompanied by a working meeting with Portuguese counterparts, was also discussed.

This meeting follows the one held on 21 May in Valença with Portugal’s Secretary of State for the Environment, João Amaral Esteves, and forms part of the institutional work being carried out to place the Minho River on the political agenda of both States.

Those attending the meeting included the Delegate of the Government of Spain in Galicia, Pedro Blanco Lobeiras; the Director of EGTC Rio Minho, José Manuel Vaz Carpinteira; the Mayor of Salvaterra de Miño, Marta Valcárcel Gómez; the Mayor of Tui, Enrique Cabaleiro González; the Mayor of O Rosal, Ánxela Fernández Callís; the Mayor of Melgaço, José Albano Domingues; the Councillor of Caminha Municipality, Ana Maria Costa da Rocha; and the Technical Secretaries of EGTC Rio Minho, Sónia Antunes and José António Sineiro.