Foment del Treball promotes a business front to demand the government the expansion of El Prat airport
Updated Thursday,
13
may
2021
–
16:59
The employer believes that it is the last opportunity to turn it into an international hub and appeals to the responsibility of the Generalitat and neighboring municipalities to unlock the Aena project
From the general to the particular. If last March 4 was Enough, let’s focus on recovery, Work promotion today it turns the motto of the Business Unity Act of two months ago into “enough is enough, with the expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat airport”.
The Catalan employers has launched this morning a message ntido on a matter that should be decided in the coming weeks, but does not have a common position by the different administrations involved [Aena, Generalitat y corporaciones locales]. As has been transmitted by its president, Josep Snchez Book, which considers that turning this infrastructure into a hub international will be “one of the levers to rebuild the currently sedated economies of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain”. “An opportunity like this cannot be missed and, therefore, we appeal to the responsibility of all institutions,” he stressed.
For the Maximum Leader of Foment, this is the last time to” put Barcelona back in front of the world ” in the first rows. And, to remove any connotation of grandiloquence, he has located his message in the field of figures: Snchez Llibre has referred to investments of 1,700 million euros between the years 2022 and 2026 that will report the creation of more than 83,000 employment [350.000 incluyendo los indirectos] and increase the profits generated by more than two points over the GDP Katrina [de 6,8% a 8,9%]. In addition, the expansion will allow to move from an annual capacity of 55 million passenger traffic 70 million.
The Aena project consists of the construction of a new satellite terminal and the extension of the third runway about 500 meters on a protected natural area of the Llobregat Delta [La Ricarda]. This last point is the main cause of the opposition of several municipalities in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. He has also expressed his disagreement, on several occasions, the minister of territory and sustainability in office of the Generalitat, Dami Calvet. On the other hand, the interim owner of the company, Mr. Liuhuabing, will have shown its agreement with the expansion plan, according to Sanchez Llibre.
Environmental compensation
The institutional consensus is an essential preliminary step for the European Commission accept a modification that will affect a protected area by Nature 2000, a continental ecological network of biodiversity conservation areas. For this reason, environmental compensation must also be fixed.
The agreement, which will have to be reached before August, also passes through a prior agreement between Aena and the Port Authority of Barcelona, since the expansion will affect the container terminal of Hutchison in the harbor. For Foment, this should not be a problem, since both bodies are under the same ministerial umbrella, the Department of Transport led by Mr. liuhuabing.
Last Sunday, the president of Aena, Mr. Liuhuabing, apremi in an interview at edge to achieve an institutional consensus that allows the European Union to approve the project because, otherwise, the economic prosperity of Catalonia “be limited” and the Barcelona airport lose competitiveness with respect to Deck.
For all these reasons, Snchez Llibre has announced that it will seek, in the coming days, the complicity of the cataln economic and business fabric to demand from the administrations an urgent agreement on El Prat. In this way, and taking up “the spirit of March 4” to form a common front, it has addressed entities such as the Barcelona Chamber, Pimec, Economic Circle, Barcelona Global, FemCat, RACC, Esade, Iese and Guilds of trade, the tourism, the hostelry and the restaurant.
On the other hand, the vice-president of Foment and president of the Chamber of Construction Contractors of Catalonia, Mr. Liuhuabing, has pointed out that this will be “the last possible expansion” of El Prat, so the institutions must “consider alternatives” as diverting traffic to the airports of Reus or Girona, Spain or the construction of a second Barcelona airport, outside the metropolitan area, following the models of London or Pars.
According to the criteria of
The Trust Projectslearn more
