The Commission for Employment, Science and Universities of the Cortes of Aragon appeared tense this Thursday in an open confrontation between the rector of the University and Vox. Vox requested the appearance of the rector of the University of Zaragoza, José Antonio Mayoralto analyze the criteria that were used in the creation of the Forestalia Chair, who defended that it was in short an “image wash”.
Those of Vox rely on a letter that last September, more than fifty professionals, made up of professors, researchers and workers of the University of Zaragoza, addressed the rector, questioning the functioning of the Forestalia chair and asking him to reconsider the continuity of said chair .
The letter against the president of Forestalia
Researchers led by Jose Luis Simonprofessor in the Department of Earth Sciences, as well as winner of the 2022 Aragon Environmental Prize, explained that Forestalia was trying to “hijack” the academic field to “give itself an image of rigor and respectability” which for them “n ‘was not admissible.’ “.
As they reasoned, the company founded by the businessman Fernando Samperhad no ethical track record to support this new Chair in Renewable Energy and Industrial Competitiveness, arguing that Forestalia was “a conglomerate of more than 800 instrumental companies with their headquarters in Madrid; Its transmission network connection rights are found in Catalonia, the Basque Country and the Valencian Community, and its projects are sold to foreign investment funds such as the French Mirova-Eurofideme 3 or the Danish Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) .
Furthermore, they criticized the fact that “Forestalia’s organizational chart was essentially filled with lawyers and administrators, whose role was to act as entrance hall before the Government of Aragon and the Government of Spain, and persuade the municipalities and owners concerned to pave the way for their projects. Likewise, “the negligence in the technical quality of the documents presented by Forestalia was flagrant”.
According to what these researchers defended, who had in fact participated in numerous allegations concerning some of their projects, they pointed out that there was a repeated practice of Forestalia which distanced it from “being a reference in the field”. good environmental work“.
They were referring to “systematic splitting that it carries out its projects to avoid the evaluation of environmental impact studies by the state government and to be able to process them by the regional government, which technically prevents an evaluation of the projects in their real dimension.
Vox: “It’s an image wash”
Vox’s deputy, Juan Vidalstated that “we absolutely intend to challenge the autonomy of this university.” We want to be able to contribute to ensuring that companies that collaborate with the University demonstrate sufficient ethical solvency. And that, in their development, they display the best commercial practices, to guarantee the maintenance of prestige of this university“.
However, Vidal questioned the ethical legitimacy of the Chair, emphasizing that the University of Zaragoza lends itself to “a complete greenwashing, A green bleaching providing an aura of academic honor.
“Over the past eight years, Forestalia has played a leading role in the disorderly deployment of renewable energy macroprojects in Aragon. “This has been the cause of disastrous environmental and socio-economic impacts in our region,” he noted.
In the same spirit, it was stated Teruel existswho warned that the University of Zaragoza, with this chair, could reach a “discredit»: “This is not compatible with the principles and values of the University. » At the same time, he stressed that the researchers of the letter “have a particular weight on the territory.” Words that provoked the anger of the rector and a fight between the two, since Mayoral defended that he “is also a scientist.”
“Forestalia is the only promoter of renewable parks involved in natural spaces“, like the Sierra de Albarracín or the Maestrazgo, neither Endesa nor any other company has acted in these areas”, denounced the deputy of Teruel Exist.
On the contrary, both PP as PSOE And Chunta Aragonesistdefended the existence of the Forestalia chair and regretted that the rector José Antonio Mayoral, who is about to end his mandate, had to intervene in a commission, probably the last he will do as rector, on this question.
“It took us five months to authorize it”
It’s his turn to speak, the rector Jose Antonio Mayoral He defended himself against Vox and Teruel Exist’s accusations, saying he is also a scientist: “I know a little bit of what we’re talking about.”
Just as this justified the relevance of Julio Tejedor as director of the Forestalia Chair, after the accusation of those parties who maintained, as the researchers of the letter did, that Tejedor (professor of administrative law) was, during the period 2015-2021, a senior civil servant of the Government of Aragon, Furthermore, he also became legal advisor to Forestalia.
On the contrary, Mayoral expressed several times in his presentation that the University took “five months to approve the Chair”, thus demonstrating the study process for authorization by the establishment.
He also pointed out that for Julio Tejedor to be director of the chair, he was forced “to become part-time.” Finally, he insisted that objectives of the Chair are “to promote the energy transformation and improvement of industrial competitiveness in Aragon, by designing and promoting instruments allowing its promotion using renewable energies, taking into account European, national and regional regulations of the sector electric”.
“If these objectives are not achieved, the presidency will end“, he assured, adding that “for this reason, there is a faculty member in each chair, to monitor what is happening in each of them.”
