The Mossos point against a former high-ranking official for the permits of the Montcada cement plant

BarcelonaThe case of the Lafarge cement plant in Montcada i Reixac reached trial this Wednesday. In the first session of the hearing against the former head of Environmental Quality and Climate Change of the Generalitat, Emili Dragone, the police officer in charge of the investigation declared that it was "reckless" to grant the environmental authorization to the cement plant. A decision for which he directly held the former high-ranking official of the Catalan executive responsible.

The case originates from a lawsuit by the Prosecutor's Office against Dragone for, allegedly, having granted the environmental authorization to Lafarge again in 2015 based on a 2008 license that the justice system had already declared void for not having followed the necessary procedures to obtain it. Always according to the public prosecutor's document, Dragone supposedly proposed republishing the same environmental impact statement even though he knew it was annulled and that, furthermore, it did not meet the 2015 environmental requirements.

The Prosecutor's Office is requesting two years in prison for a crime against natural resources and the environment for having ignored the judicial annulment of an environmental authorization granted to the company in 2008 and promoting it in 2015, "without further ado." For its part, the private prosecution, led by the Can Sant Joan Neighborhood Association, is requesting six years of imprisonment.

This Wednesday, the agent in charge of the investigation stated that he had verified that the content of the environmental impact statements for the 2008 and 2015 licenses was "the same." Furthermore, he pointed out the direct responsibility of Dragone because he was the "head of service" and the one in charge of "steering" the decisions. In this sense, he explained that it was he who decided on the processing of the file and whether or not to publish it. "There was no one else in the department," he added.

In defense of the factory

On the other hand, the head of the Legal Advisory area of what was then the Department of Environment of the Generalitat, Catalina Cerdà, stated that she did not find any irregularities in the permits and that if she had detected any, she would have warned about them. Furthermore, she recalled that the Supreme Court ruling that annulled the 2008 declaration did so due to formal issues, but considered that "none of the environmental impacts had been proven".

In the same vein, the director of legal security at Lafarge, Juan Verdú, expressed himself, emphasizing the fact that the court decisions were due to "formal issues" and defended that the company "has always complied with environmental requirements".

Also coming to Dragone's defense was the former director general of Environmental Quality and Climate Change, Mercè Rius, who explained that the former high-ranking official was only in charge of "integrating" the reports submitted by technicians to then pass them on to the Environmental Board. "In the event that one had wanted to skip the procedure, the Board would not have allowed it, everything was very regulated," declared the witness, who held the position between 2016 and 2022. This Thursday will be the turn of Dragone's statement. During the investigation phase, he defended that whenever he authorized environmental permits, he did so following legal reports.