AbstractMethodError on deploying Spring 4.0 in Tomcat 6

The error has nothing to do with the EL. It has all to do with the javax.validation api and hibernate.

java.lang.AbstractMethodError: org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.getDefaultParameterNameProvider()Ljavax/validation/ParameterNameProvider

Hibernate validator 4.3.x is an implementation of javax.validation 1.0 (JSR-303). However you are including the 1.1 API version. Either downgrade the included javax.validation version or upgrade your hibernate validator to 5.0.x.

Check to see if there are multiple references to validator in your pom file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
    <version>${hibernate-val.version}</version>
</dependency>