The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has placed the expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat airport as a priority and has announced that this Tuesday the government will resume the table between the Generalitat and the government so that in “three or four months” they will present the technical proposals.
In an interview with TV3, the president stressed that he wanted to “listen to the technicians” before making a decision, but he insisted that he also intended to “unlock” the expansion of infrastructure so that the airport could accommodate more intercontinental flights.
The expansion of El Prat has been blocked since 2021, when Aena presented a detailed dossier to the technical table before different government departments and town halls, in which it had already quantified the effects in square meters, drawn the plan of the works on the protected area. and It calculated the superficial damages for the different conservation objectives of the natural space. The extension of the runway to accommodate large aircraft affected the protected environmental area of La Ricarda, which aroused opposition from environmental parties and groups and stopped the project.
Illa stressed that any proposal must have the “utmost environmental rigor” and, although he did not take specific measures, he advocated “compensatory measures” and the search for a “balance point” between the environment and the expansion of environmental infrastructure.
The president said that it will be the technicians who will have to present the best proposals so that this infrastructure can accommodate larger planes: “We cannot leave this issue dormant or put aside.”
Illa also defended the reform of the financing system of Catalonia agreed between the PSC and the ERC for his investiture, and urged Junts to say whether he is for or against the agreement on a new model that improves the income of the community. “I ask for a calm and peaceful debate and that there is no noise,” he asked.
