The Euro MPs of both the socialist PSOE and the conservative Partido Popular parties yesterday voiced their opposition to the findings of Danish EMP Margrete Auken of the Green Party in her report on Urbanization in the Valencian and Andalucian regions.

The text called for profound changes in the building laws in both regions, and called for a moratorium on any building plans for projects that do not respect the environment.

For the socialists, Maruja Somosa stated that her group wanted to delete the paragraphs that place in doubt the Spanish guarantee of property rights and the proposals for a moratorium.

For the Partido Popular, Gerardo Galeote criticised the report for not being impartial, and also requested alterations, whilst David Hammerstein of the Greens and Willy Meyer of the IU stated that they both approved of it.

Other Euro MPs from outside Spain have publicly demanded that their Spanish colleagues put an end to the discussion over the text, whilst for her part, Mrs Auken stated that: "The massive urbanization in coastal areas above all in the Valencian Community, the Murcia region and Andalucia simply have not respected certain European directives."

For the Valencian government, María Angeles Urena stated that the urbanization legislation was in line with the regulations of the country, but Jaime del Val a spokesman for the Citizens Coordination for the Defense of the Territory stated that building in Spain over the last twenty years has been five times greater than that in the remainder of the European Union, and this has now resulted in over three million new homes that are still lying empty.

The Auken report is the third about building in Spain and comes after reports in 2005 and 2007 were highly critical of building in the country and in particular the Valencian Community, where both reports noted that in certain cases European and Spanish residents have been defenseless against abuses.