The Chambers of Seixal and Moita remain uncompromising about the location of the future airport in Montijo. Contacted by SOL, the municipalities admit advancing, as a last resort, with a precautionary measure, but guarantee that they will privilege the institutional debate and maintain the dispute in the political field. “Only if none of this works will we resort to a judicial decision”, guarantees Rui Garcia, president of Câmara do Moita to SOL.
A legal solution that, according to the lawyer at Antas da Cunha Ecija & Associados, is available to municipalities so that they can present their grounds to justify recourse to judicial proceedings. «In this case, the municipalities involved and which have the due legitimacy for that purpose, may bring the appropriate precautionary measure, or to suspend the effects of the Environmental Impact Assessment – as was already the case with a group of citizens who joined and interposed a precautionary measure against the aforementioned Assessment in December last year – or even to summon the Government to refrain from proceeding with the licensing and construction of the airport ‘for alleged violation or well-founded fear of violation of national administrative law or European Union law “, says Ana Borges to SOL. The lawyer also points out that this precautionary measure can also serve for the Executive “to refrain from ‘producing’ any legislation or regulation that aims to go beyond the legislation currently in force regarding the requirements of favorable opinions to be issued by the municipalities that consider themselves affected with the installation of Montijo airport in these conditions ».
The explanation is simple: the two municipalities refuse to give the green light to the new project and, without this positive opinion, the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) cannot license the infrastructure. At issue is a decree-law of 2010 that requires the construction, expansion or modification of an airport to begin with a request to be submitted to ANAC so that it can make a prior assessment of feasibility. This situation, which, this week, was confirmed by Pedro Nuno Santos – guaranteeing that «the legal framework that regulates these matters must obviously be revised, because it is absolutely incomprehensible that it was the President of Câmara da Moita to deny» an opportunity that affects the country. And he went further: «It should not be the president of the Moita City Council to decide for the country, for the Lisbon region and, by the way, if we want to get closer, through Alcochete, Barreiro and Montijo».
This Friday already guaranteed that it is necessary to “separate infrastructures of a municipal scope from infrastructures of national importance, or we run the serious risk of not being able to meet the needs of our people. We are talking about the creation of almost 10,000 jobs in a region that has suffered the effects of deindustrialization like no other. It is the people of Barreiro, Montijo, Alcochete and Moita who will benefit from that infrastructure ».
Ana Borges recalls that “one of the requirements foreseen in the prior assessment of the feasibility of an application for the construction of an aerodrome is precisely the favorable opinion of all the municipal councils of the municipalities potentially affected, either by unobstructed surfaces or by environmental reasons”, and, as a consequence, it sanctions with a «preliminary rejection» the absence of those same opinions.
For the lawyer, at the moment, and considering this legal requirement, there is no other way to overcome it than to change the legislation: «Either through its elimination or through the concretization of concepts, in order to materialize in which terms opinions must be issued ‘.
Change the law?
For the mayor of Moita, the solution is not to change the law. A solution that, in his opinion, would be regrettable, since the municipalities involved must have a say in relation to the new infrastructure. “It would be unfortunate if the Government changed the law”, he said, recognizing, however, that this would not surprise him: “The Government has shown that it is willing to overcome all problems and obstacles, but to make a law as immediate objectives should not even be considered ”.
Rui Garcia recalls that he maintains the negative opinion regarding the construction of the airport, taking into account the health and safety of the 35 thousand people affected in the municipality, in addition to the negative environmental impacts. «The runway is approached not through Montijo but in Moita, in an area of greater population density». And he adds that the municipality, when it gave a negative opinion, “was reasoned and detailed and concluded that the impacts would be excessive and unacceptable for the municipality when there is an alternative”.
The mayor defended the Alcochete Shooting Range as an ideal solution, which “has all the positive effects and does not have the negative effects”.
Also for the Mayor of Seixal, Joaquim Santos, Montijo airport “is not a solution”, but rather “a project with no future and that in a few years is exhausted”. Joaquim Santos shares the opinion of the mayor of Moita, arguing that the alternative should pass through the Shooting Range of Alcochete.
Despite admitting that this location, in a first phase, would require higher values, he guarantees that Alcochete “would not harm the health of thousands of people”. And he goes further: «We think that the minister should be more concerned, first, with the populations and, second, with the future airport of the region and the country, than with circumventing a law. More than circumventing laws, the minister should explain why he is putting Montijo ahead of Alcochete, when Alcochete had already been studied and even has an Environmental Impact Statement approved and in force. Why don’t you explain that? That is the key question ».
The route of Alverca
Already ruled out is the possibility for the group of citizens who defend the Alverca solution to proceed with a precautionary measure. To SOL, José Furtado, a specialist in the sector and responsible for the development of this alternative location, guarantees that more important is to demand that EUROCONTROL (European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation) make an assessment of the runways, since he only made an air analysis .
“If EUROCONTROL analyzes the runways, it is easy to conclude that the existing runway in Montijo has problems at the moment of landing because it is short and, as such, increases the chances of an accident.” A problem that, according to the official, gains greater contours in the event of a forced landing: “Even if the runway length is increased, the landing distance will always be the same because of the navigation channel”.
Another obstacle for Montijo, according to the official, is related to the inability of this infrastructure to respond to the needs of larger capacity aircraft. An issue that gains another breath after Fernando Medina has guaranteed that the municipality of Lisbon will not tolerate the return of night flights to Humberto Delgado airport, considering that such a decision would be “absolutely unacceptable”.
What is certain is that, at this time, the planes that land in Lisbon are for intercontinental trips and, as such, have larger dimensions.
In fact, this is in line with the statements of the executive president of TAP, who this week guaranteed that “there is no possibility” for the airline to go to Montijo and that the new airport “is not for TAP”. According to Antonoaldo Neves, the airline operates long-haul planes, which do not fit at Montijo airport, “neither today nor in four years”.
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