- The Supreme Court has declared the environmental authorization of the cement production plant of the multinational Lafarge in Montcada i Reixac (Catalan Countries) illegal, and has asked the Generalitat to stop the use of cement and to ratify what was agreed by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia in January. It granted in 2015 the residue burning licence for cement production, which has now been suspended.
Both the Town Hall of Montcada i Reixac and the neighbours and movements that have fought during these years against the incinerator of the local cement plant have shown their satisfaction that the State High Court of Justice has declared the use licenses unlegal. "Today is a great day for the health of the citizens and the quality of the air we breathe in our city," said Mayor Laura Campos, in a press conference in which municipalities, the association of neighbors Can Sant Joan and the Platform Against Incineration have appeared. Since 2008, local associations have been fighting against Lafarge’s activity, both through mobilisation and in the courts. "We are sincerely grateful for the struggle of Can Sant Joan," the mayor admitted, "because they have never surrendered and we express our satisfaction that the Supreme Court has not given the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia that the company has appealed on this matter."
The ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court is a major blow to the cement factory in Lafarge. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) annulled last January the Environmental Authorization of the Generalitat of the cement plant, which allowed it to incinerate waste in addition to other fuels for cement production, based on an environmental impact study carried out in 2008 and which the judges recognized that the standards contemplated by the 2008 examinations have become obsolete today, thus rejecting Lafarge. All these arguments are now supported by the Spanish High Court of Justice, which has underlined the illegality of the cement factory in Montcada.
Here you can read in full the two decisions of the courts, that of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia and that of the Supreme Court.
Like the Town Hall of Montcada i Reixac, the citizens will have to follow carefully what the Generalitat will do with these resolutions. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, in point 4 of its resolution, shows how the Generalitat helped the company justify the illegalities, using one of the traps that the administration always has at its disposal:
