The court overturns the veto of the Barcelona City Council on the Hermitage Museum

BarcelonaAnother setback from the courts to one of the decisions of Ada Colau's government as mayor of Barcelona. The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has annulled the veto that the Barcelona City Council in 2021 imposed the construction of a franchise of the Hermitage Museum on a plot of land at the new port entrance. According to the ruling that has been released The Country, the museum project met the urban planning requirements and had the necessary economic viability and, therefore, the magistrates consider that the refusal of the municipal government (with Barcelona en Comú at the forefront) arbitrarily affected the rights of the promoter.

The court's decision, however, goes beyond the Hermitage. The sentence –which has the dissenting vote of two of the five magistrates that form the court– annuls an article of the special plan for the new mouth of the port of Barcelona that the council used as its main argument to veto the cultural complex: the concession was conditional on the approval of the City Council. According to the TSJC, the law does not grant powers to the council for refusing to accommodate a specific project once it accepted that the planning included a cultural option.

The council, the ruling continues, "could have denied the modification of the plan for reasons of legality, and not of opportunity, or not have authorized a cultural or other use in the central building of the port of Barcelona also for reasons of legality." "But once it has assessed that this use can be authorized, the decision cannot be withheld," the decision adds.

Sources from the promoter group Hermitage Barcelona, ​​​​SL have explained to Efe that they are satisfied with the ruling because it is favorable to them, and that they must now study the next steps in this process. Hermitage Barcelona, ​​​​SL decided in October 2021 to take the city council of the Catalan capital to court due to the council's refusal to grant permits to build the museum center on land owned by Port de Barcelona despite having received the initial authorization from the port authority.

The City Council will review the plan for the construction of the museum center on land owned by the Port of Barcelona, ​​​​despite having received the initial authorization from the port authority.

The City Council will review the plan for the construction of the museum center on land owned by the Port of Barcelona, ​​​​despite having received the initial authorization from the port authority.

From the municipal government, the first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, has announced that the City Council will present an appeal against the sentence so that the Supreme Court can rule on it. Bonet has defended the legitimacy of the council to "influence decisions on what happens in the port", and has recalled that another contentious court in the city had previously endorsed the decision. She also stressed that the sentence was not taken unanimously but that it has a dissenting vote from two of the five magistrates.

Despite announcing an appeal against the court's decision, Bonet has also taken advantage of the sentence to question the ways of the comuns when they were at the head of the City Council and the Urban Planning area. "It shows how one should not work, from imposition and confrontation," she said, and added that, if instead of going into conflict with the promoters of the project, "a certain consensus" had been sought, surely it would not have reached that point.

The leader of Barcelona en Común and responsible for Urban Planning during the negotiations for the Hermitage, Janet Sanz, has also reacted to the decision of the TSJC. In statements to journalists, she considered the sentence "surprising", and defended the ability of the City Council to influence the uses of public space throughout the city, including the port. She also recalled that the decision to veto the project was made in accordance with several municipal reports that questioned it.

From Junts por Barcelona, ​​​​on the other hand, its leader, Jordi Martí, has considered that the sentence is a "slap" shared by the mayor, Jaume Collboni, and the former mayor Ada Colau. Martí has ​​encouraged the municipal executive not to go around and look for an "agreed" way out that avoids million-dollar compensations in the city. The leader of the PP in the City Council, Daniel Sirera, has attacked "the sectarianism of the Colau and Collboni government" which, he said, not only caused the Hermitage to be lost but could cost the city millions of euros in compensation.

A decade of back and forth

The idea of opening a branch of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, one of the world's leading art galleries, in Barcelona was made public at the end of 2012. After 10 years, four locations, a director, several architectural and artistic projects, and the promise of 50 million euros in investment, the courts are now seeking compensation.

In fact, the promoter group is awaiting the resolution of two other disputes, one filed by the Port of Barcelona against the Barcelona City Council, where Hermitage Barcelona, ​​​​SL has also been sued, and another by Hermitage against the Port of Barcelona because they made a conditional grant of the concession to reach an agreement with the Liceu and have this agreement signed. The resolution of the TSJC opens the door to possible compensation for the economic damages caused by Hermitage Barcelona, ​​​​SL.

Beyond whether or not there ends up being compensation, what is ruled out is the recovery of the idea of ​​bringing a branch of the Hermitage Museum to Barcelona, ​​​​a project that if it had gone ahead at the time would have been bogged down after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, on the horizon continues the bet for that plot to end up being built as a cultural facility.