Spain gets another mauling in the latest EU report on sinister town-planning practises and the ‘land grab ‘ scandal that has brought misery to Spanish and foreign home owners, principally in the Valencian Community.

The Petitions Committee approved the report by 24 votes to 11, thwarting an attempt by an unnatural alliance of right and left wing Spanish MEPs to water down the report with a series of amendments. The report will now be debated in the European Parliament on 26 March.

Prepared for the Petitions Committee by Danish MEP (Greens) Margrete Auken, the report excoriates Spain, and the Valencian region in particular, for a variety of evils related to the rampant urban development sanctioned by the government over the last decade.

Top of the list of complaints are Valencia’s ‘land grab’ town planning laws that allow developers to promote speculative planning schemes on other people’s land, and force owners to help finance the schemes.

Spain is also slammed for encouraging a speculative construction boom that covered the coast in concrete, and created a supersized housing glut.

The report points the finger at “all levels of the administration” for encouraging an “unsustainable model of economic development” with grave consequences for Spain’s society, economy, and environment.

This is the third report blasting Spain for its urban planning practices, weak property rights, municipal corruption, unresponsive legal system, and environmental degradation in almost as many years.

According to one Spanish MEP, the report makes Spain seem like a “banana republic”.