Fifty opposition groups denounce that the plant that the Xunta processes in Lugo fails to comply with seven community directives. It will occupy 363 hectares, capture 46 million liters of water per day from a river and produce 400,000 tons of soluble cellulose attached to the Natura Network.
With the European elections on the horizon, opponents of the project have traveled to Brussels this week to try to stop it. In Galicia, the deadline to submit allegations to its environmental authorization closes this Wednesday, and, according to those who have already done so, there are more than 5,000. The Galician Government has refused to give 15 more days of time despite the requests received. The developer Greenfiber has requested 250 million euros of Next Generation funds to finance the project, essential money and without which it will not be executed, as warned by this company born from the alliance between the Portuguese firm Altri and the A Corua businessman Manuel Garca Pardo. That is why the Ulloa Viva platform has filed a complaint with the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament. Galicia is the community in Spain with the least territory protected. The area is home to five species legally classified as endangered and 10 vulnerable. There are also 19 regularly present bird species for which European regulations require the declaration of a Special Protection Area for Birds. The decision of whether or not Greenfiber receives the European funds it needs for its project depends first on the Ministry of Industry, which has avoided advancing its position until it studies it in detail. The BNG describes the project as an “environmental bomb” and the rejection of a plant that the PSdeG-PSOE has described as a 'environmental bombs' is growing, says the opposition leader in Galicia, Pedro Sánchez de Gómez. In October, Industry promised collaboration with the Xunta and proposed the PERTE route for Decarbonization.