The Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, spoke about the macrocellulose project that the Portuguese company Altri wants to install in Palas de Rei (A Ulloa, Lugo). “With the funds from the Recovery Plan, nothing can be financed that undermines environmental or social objectives,” he said in an interview with the recently published Galician Economic Forum Yearbook.
Body explains that in any project that opts for what is called Next Generation, “the allocation of aid is always conditional on the final assessment of compliance with the conditions required by the European Commission”. The minister highlights in particular the “particular relevance” of the so-called “Do No Significant Harm” principle, “not causing significant harm to environmental objectives”.
Besteiro: “This project will not have much success”
Also this Sunday, the secretary general of the Socialist Party of Galicia, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, took a position on the controversial Altri project. “In addition to the fact that we don’t like the project,” he said in an interview with Cadena Ser, “I think that due to the decarbonization and innovation parameters of European aid, this project will not have much impact. by that.” Besteiro also criticized the company’s “hesitations” when it came to clarifying what the plant would consist of and the high public funding it requires: 250 million euros, “almost 25% of the industrial project.”
This is the first time that the Galician socialist leader has defined himself so clearly on the issue of Altri, which has provoked a significant neighbourhood mobilisation against it but which enjoys the support of the Xunta of Alfonso Rueda.
