The first major economic project that President Salvador Illa wants to promote has been met with rejection by the two groups that invested in it. ERC and Comuns have rejected the expansion of Barcelona-El Prat airport, consisting of extending one of its current runways over the sea. Both parties consider the environmental and tourist impact of the government’s proposal to be unaffordable and excessive.
Although this Monday the president and this Tuesday the spokesperson, the councilor Sívia Paneque, advocated waiting for the technical proposals, expected for the end of the year or the beginning of 2025, the agreement approved by the government leaves little room for doubt. The Catalan Executive “considers it necessary to increase the current capacity of the Airport, with the improvement of the acoustic impact and the lengthening of the runway at sea to satisfy the demand for intercontinental flights”. That is to say, expansion yes or yes, at least as a political bet before knowing the technical studies.
Illa pulled the El Prat expansion out of the drawer in the early stages of his government. The project had been stalled since Aena presented a detailed dossier on the new construction to various government departments and city councils in 2021. The extension of the runway to accommodate large aircraft affected the La Ricarda protected environmental area, which sparked opposition from environmental parties and groups and halted the project.
While we wait to know the new technical details of the works and their impact on the protected areas, the announcement has already provoked conflicting reactions from ERC and Comuns. “It makes no sense to expand El Prat airport,” said the spokesman of the House of Commons in Parliament, David Cid, who criticized the measure for its environmental impact on the protected area of the Llobregat Delta and because it would mean the arrival of more tourists.
In a press conference in Parliament, El Cid considered it contradictory that the Government prioritizes housing and at the same time promotes an expansion of the airport that will impact the market by attracting more tourists. “We will not accompany the government in measures that constitute a mistake,” he warned.
For her part, the deputy secretary general and spokesperson of the ERC in Parliament, Marta Vilalta, warned that the investiture agreement signed between the PSC and the ERC stipulates that increasing the capacity of El Prat airport is incompatible with the lengthening of the runway. “It is a red line to confuse the modernization of the airport with the lengthening of the runway, which would deteriorate the natural spaces,” Vilalta said in a statement.
The Republican stressed that the investiture agreement between the ERC and the PSC provides for work on the modernization of infrastructure within the framework of the technical commission “and the protection of environments”. He also insisted that the investiture agreement requires that this modernization “in no case leads to an increase in emissions and that it respects biodiversity and the Natura 2000 network”.
In addition to environmental objections, ERC criticized the fact that Illa did not opt this Monday for a greater role for the Generalitat in the management of the airport. According to Vilalta, the key to the investiture pact is that the Generalitat is the one that “steers any steps in this direction.” The agreement also provides for the creation in the medium term of a new Airport Management Board to replace the technical commission and the creation of the Airport Authority of Catalonia. “We ask the president to affirm the role of the Generalitat in the management of the airport,” Vilalta said.
