Expectation in Andorra to learn about a transition agreement that “arrives late”
The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, teresa rivercome back today to Andorra to present the agreement for the just transition so that the locality passes from an economy based on coal and thermoelectric production to other activities. they have passed almost four years of the booing and shouting that received Ribera in January 2019. Then the population clamored for an agile, participatory and as little traumatic conversion of coal as possible. Four years later, the thermal power plant has closed and the only job created is its dismantling.
Of the agreement for the just transition that, according to the vice president, was going to be signed in June 2019, hardly anything has been known during all this time. the Aragonese president, Javier Lambanannounced last July that the plan would be endowed with 184 million euros, half of them contributed by the European Union and the other half by the DGA itself.
The agreement has the approval of the Central Government and that of Aragon, but still has to be ratified by the European Union so tomorrow it will be presented but there is still a long way to go before it is signed. Javier Lambán announced a few days ago that in the regional budgets for 2023, 20 million have already been allocated to endow it and the constitution that the Ministry already has “tied” the yes of Brussels.
The great unknown is knowing what the agreement will consist of, since neither the area councils themselves nor the social agents that will send proposals for the prior consultation process know nothing. Only its scope of action is known: the nine municipalities of the Andorra Sierra de Arcos region plus the Bajo Aragonese Foz-Calanda Y alcorisa.
The plan, as announced, was going to “seek solutions for the future with the agents of the territory to maintain activity and employment in the transition zones.” In February 2020, a technical conference was held in Andorra with 80 social agents within the citizen participation from which the agreement was to be drawn up. In total, 82 very varied projects and initiatives were presented that their promoters do not know if they have been taken into account since they have not heard from the Ministry.
Darío Sanz, general secretary of the Comarcal Union of CC. oo. from andorra, describes the process as “absolutely opaque”. “They have not reported the agreement at this time and it comes very late, with the plant closed for two and a half years and the families have had to find their lives, on many occasions outside of Andorra,” he says. One of his proposals was the protection of subcontractor workers. Something that has not been fulfilled.
Andorra hopes that many of the unknowns will be cleared up this Monday with the return of Teresa Ribera almost four years later and also accompanied by Javier Lambán. The presentation ceremony will be held at 4:15 p.m. at the Casa de Cultura with the assistance of mayors, authorities and social agents. Ribera will move before ariño Accompanied by the Aragonese vice president, Arturo Aliaga, to find out about two conversion projects that are already underway: Forgasa, the Samca organo-mineral fertilizer plant; and Thermowaste, an innovative assembly plant for equipment to recycle household waste.
The mayor of Ariño, Joaquín Noé, He hopes that it is not a closed document and that it can include, if it is not there, the arrangement of the mining track, one of his hands together with Andorra, Alacón, Oliete and Alloza. “We are happy that we know the reality of Ariño, a town where we have had a very bad time but which is being converted without forgetting its mining past,” explains Noé.
The third deputy mayor of Andorra, general secretary of UGT in Teruel and last president of the thermal power plant committee, Alejo Galve, is “expectant” about the content of the agreement that, he admits, “arrives late.” “In Andorra we have opted for the Mudéjar Knot contest, which has been awarded to Endesa and its accompanying plan,” she points out.
Precisely, it is expected that Ribera will also explain the competition for the Mudéjar knot, provisionally awarded to Endesa and which at this time is the only certainty in the territory if it is not prosecuted. He must unite the commitment to the production of renewable energy with a support plan that is the great hope of the town. The millionaire contest will mean the creation of 300 direct jobs once all the initiatives are underway after an investment of more than 1,200 million euros.
The Andorran business sector trusts the Mudéjar Knot more than an agreement that has not been reached in four years and its content is not known as it acknowledges Roberto Miguel, president of the Businessmen of Andorra Sierra de Arcos and Bajo Martín. At the moment the announcements of the companies that were going to come to Andorra have remained in advertisements, which has caused boredom in the territory. “We have received so many announcements… the pellet plant, five companies that have advertised to us and of which we know nothing. Anyone who wants to work finds many problems because unfortunately none of these commitments have materialized,” says Miguel.
For this reason, another of the great doubts of the day is knowing how Andorra will receive the minister. In January 2019, Ribera arrived at the City Hall amid boos, shouts and proclamations of “Andorra is not for sale, Andorra defends itself”. Around a thousand people gathered in front of the Town Hall to show their discomfort with the minister and demand a future for the area.