On 2 June 2025, Administrative Court 6 of Valencia annulled the drinking water network management contract between Empresa General Valenciana del Agua SA and the municipality of Casinos, Spain (pop. ~3,000). The ruling determined that the long-term, tacit renewal of the contract without a public tender violated procurement law.
The Casinos project was originally signed in 1994, at a time when Empresa General Valenciana del Agua SA was entirely publicly owned. In 1999, Empresa General Valenciana del Agua SA underwent partial privatization, selling 49% of its shares to Global Omnium. Despite this change, several municipalities in Valencia, including Casinos, continued to renew their contracts with Empresa General Valenciana del Agua SA without engaging in competitive bidding. These contract extensions ranged from 10 to 30 years, with the municipalities relying on Empresa General Valenciana del Agua SA’s former status as a publicly owned entity to facilitate the agreements. According to European Union and Spanish law, these municipalities were required to initiate competitive bidding for the contracts since Empresa General Valenciana del Agua SA had transitioned into a private company.
The Casinos case mirrors a case from September 2024 in Ontinyent, Spain (~35,000 residents). Even though these individual contracts are small in scale, they contribute to the growing momentum of an emerging legal precedent with far-reaching implications for Valencia’s water concessions market.
