King Felipe VI received the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, at Marivent Palace yesterday. | Ballesteros

TW
0

It may well have been the King’s first summer meeting with the Prime Minister since being crowned in June, but there was plenty on the agenda.

The two men addressed and discussed issues ranging from Ebola to the crisis in the Ukraine and the Spanish economy.

But, emerging from the meeting, the big question was about the Prime Minister’s stance on oil and gas prospecting in Balearics waters.

And, Mariano Rajoy said that there will be no prospecting “if there is the slightest hint of a risk to the environment.”

Drawn out process
He also said that the whole prospecting process is going to a “long and drawn out one” but he will be in constant contact with the Balearic President, Jose Ramon Bauza.

Bauza is under increasing fire from the anti oil prospecting movement because it was revealed this week that last Spring, prospecting was carried out in Balearic waters and the government chose to say nothing about it.