| Montreal, 25/05/2005 – On 18 May 2005, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America received Mexico’s response to submission SEM-05-001/(Crushed Gravel in Puerto Peñasco), which was filed with the Secretariat on 12 January 2005.
The submission, filed by Inmobiliaria J and B Empresas, SA de CV, alleges that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce certain provisions of its environmental law relating to environmental impact and land use in connection with crushed gravel mining which, it asserts, is being carried out illegally on its property.
In the first part of its response, Mexico presents arguments as to why it believes that the submission should be dismissed. As to the content of the submission, Mexico asserts that it acted diligently and enforced its law in relation to its handling of the complaint filed by the Submitter on 27 May 2003, and the ensuing inspection procedure, which led to the opening of an administrative file that is now closed. Mexico states that, according to the information in its possession, it did enforce the provisions governing its actions in those proceedings. However, it states that the Submitter did not supply information that would have been relevant in determining the legal nature of the real property mentioned in the complaint and in the citizen submission, and asserts that it became aware of this information only because it was appended to the submission.
Mexico requested that the response be kept confidential, with the exception of certain sections of its response covering preliminary matters. However, it provided a summary of these confidential sections, which is public.
Under Article 15(1) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, the Secretariat must now advise the CEC Council whether it considers that, in light of the Mexico’s response, the submission warrants the development of a factual record.
The CEC was created by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States to address environmental concerns in North America, help prevent potential trade and environmental disputes, and promote the effective enforcement of environmental law.
For additional information, see the Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters web page at <www.cec.org/citizen>. |
