The Public Ministry requested this Friday the nullity of the Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) related to the Montijo airport project and its accessibility, within the framework of an administrative process that is processed in the Court of Almada.
In its opinion on the challenge request requested by the group of citizens Negetata – Nobody Expects Great Opportunities With Anti-Environmental Investments, to which Lusa had access, the Public Ministry affirms that “DIA not only goes beyond its scope of appreciation, advancing to prescription in the field of land use planning, since it subverts the land use planning and programming system, even in the dimension of the European framework”.
In December 2019, the Negetata citizens’ group presented a precautionary measure to suspend the Environmental Impact Study of the new Montijo airport and requested that the Environmental Impact Statement not be issued.
The DIA was issued by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) in January and the same group requested that the precautionary procedure be extended to the APA’s decision as well.
The Administrative and Fiscal Court of Almada rejected the precautionary measure related to the DIA of the Montijo airport, in September 2021 but, according to the lawyer of the citizen group, Miguel Santos Pereira, the sentence “completely destroyed the location option, understanding the court that the environmental impact statement could never have been favorable”.
The precautionary measure, he explained, was rejected because there was no special urgency or damage to the population, since the process is paralyzed, and the Government has announced a strategic environmental assessment.
However, the lawyer said in statements to the Lusa agency, the popular action continued its course and now the Public Ministry (MP) has given its opinion in the scope of the process requesting the nullity of the DIA.
In its opinion, the MP writes that it adheres to the appeal request of the Claimant (Group of Negotiating Citizens), “in the sense of verifying the nullity of the administrative act embodied in the DIA, and the Court must declare the act null or void” .
For Miguel Santos Pereira, the MP is clear in saying that “it must be left without effect and that it violates the law.”
“With this opinion, Montijo’s option is clearly outdated. Now it was convenient to give Minister Pedro Nuno Santos a voice and do things well and think about the future. He seems to be the only element of governance concerned with doing something for the country and not for votes,” he said.
Source: Observadora
