Forestalia is a major Aragonese renewable energy company that is quite well known in Camp de Tarragona: it intended to promote a 287-kilometer high-voltage line, 181 of which are in Catalan territory, to bring electricity from Aragon to Catalonia. A project, controversial at the time, which is now history. However, the headaches for the company are not over, and now the dust is being generated by an alleged environmental corruption case that, for the moment, has resulted in six arrests. What is being investigated?

Let's take it step by step. The case has already been dubbed the Forestalia case. This Friday, a hearing for precautionary measures is scheduled by the magistrate responsible for the case. Broadly speaking, an alleged environmental corruption scheme affecting the province of Teruel, in Aragon, is being investigated. The case came to light ten days ago, when the Central Operational Unit for the Environment (UCO) of the Guardia Civil arrested six people, including a former senior official from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Eugenio Domínguez, and the owner of the company, Fernando Samper. Searches were also carried out in Madrid and Zaragoza. Juan José Cortés Hidalgo, head of Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 1 of Teruel, is directing the investigation under judicial secrecy.

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The decision ofeliminate the ban on the sale of combustion engine vehicles The announcement that the new regulations will be in place from January 1, 2035, has caught many off guard. However, this announcement has been brewing for some time in the ongoing discussions about environmental and industrial policies. In fact, the European Commission's (EC) directive to phase out the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles was launched in July 2021 and definitively approved by the European Parliament in February 2023. The Commission has now decided to amend the directive, reducing the initial target of a 100% reduction in CO₂ emissions for new vehicles to 90%. This change will allow for the limited sale of combustion engine vehicles beyond 2035, thus marking a relaxation of the European Green Deal.

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The green transition in the European Union (EU) is becoming increasingly less vibrant. The radical change in the roadmap that the bloc had established for the phasing out of combustion engine cars is proof of this. There is a big difference between prohibiting its sale from 2035 onwards and removing this limitation.Pressure from the automotive industry, which wields considerable influence in countries like Germany, has ultimately weakened the European Commission's regulations. And this is not the only setback—or, as the European Commission calls it, a relaxation—of the EU's climate plan for the automotive sector. Not long ago, it also postponed for three years the entry into force of sanctions against automotive groups that fail to meet CO₂ emissions standards. And the previous Commission, also headed by Ursula von der Leyen, who retained her mandate after last year's European elections, had already relaxed environmental requirements following protests by European farmers.

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