The government of Salvador Illa is determined to move forward with the Barcelona airport expansion project, now frozen due to the paralysis of the former executive of Father Aragonès, even if its parliamentary fragility threatens a project considered essential to Catalan economic development
This afternoon, the Catalan Executive agreed to reconvene the technical commission on the enlargement of the infrastructure. “We cannot let this issue lie dormant or be put aside,” Illa stressed last night on TV3, confirming that he was putting back on the table an issue that he had indicated as a priority in the final stretch of the legislature and during the campaign, but that his investiture partners continue to question. ERC and Comunes have already warned Illa today that they would not have his support, at a key moment when budget negotiations are opening.
The Government spokesperson and Territorial Councillor, Sílvia Paneque, confirmed this morning that she has been tasked with preparing a technical proposal that must include, she assured, environmental compensations. At this stage, and in the initial phase of a negotiation that promises to be complex, the Generalitat does not want to assess whether or not the proposal should include the extension of one of the runways, an element that AENA considers essential for the airport to accommodate long-range aircraft but whose environmental impact is the excuse of the ERC and the Comunes to reject it. “There is no contradiction between growth and respect for the environment. “We are committed to ensuring that all infrastructure is carried out with the greatest environmental rigor,” Paneque explained, anticipating what will be the key debate in the months and years to come.
The Government is giving itself a period of three to four months for the commission to make a technical proposal. “We ask the commission to compare the different proposals that have emerged,” said the advisor, referring to the design of the AENA, the one born from the previous government and others promoted under the protection of the employer Fomento del Trabajo association.
This morning, the ERC and the Commons reminded Illa that the investiture agreement stipulates that environmental preservation is a priority. On the Republican side, it was also recalled that the pact establishes that a new management and governance model in which the Generalitat has a decisive role. At present, the mission of the Technical Commission is limited to the expansion proposal and not to the governance model, the government recalled today.
AENA’s initial proposal, rejected at the time by the Generalitat, envisaged the construction of a new terminal and the expansion of the third runway, with a total investment of around 1.7 billion. social and environmental cost of action is the main obstacle and excuse of ERC and the Commons to reject the proposal, while the extension of the runway that should allow its use for long-haul flights should be carried out over protected wetlands. The other option would involve an increase in the noise impact on protected areas. Finally, and as proposed by the Commons and Environment sectors, this is directly paralysis, in line with the theories of degrowth. For ERC, it was recalled this morning, “the widening of the runway is a red line”. For the Commons, airport expansions “will never have our support”, declared the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun.
With the proposal of the AENA and under the impetus of the Employer promotionUp to a dozen alternatives have been proposed to allow the expansion, including the option of building a new runway on a platform reclaimed from the sea.
