The Xunta asks for European support to unblock the deployment of wind energy in Galicia

The Galician Government invoked this Wednesday the complicity and support of the European institutions to “unblock” the deployment of wind energy in Galicia and thus be able to comply with the decarbonisation objectives that emanate from the European Green Pact. Accompanied by several collaborators, the Minister of the Environment of the Xunta, Ángeles Vázquez, held a meeting with those responsible for the legal field of the European Commission, described by herself as “moi produtiva”, in which she explained the “great legal insecurity” that is experienced in the community after the paralysis of more than 60 wind projects by the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG) that had previously been authorised by the Xunta.

Vázquez showed the representatives of the European Commission the situation of renewables in the community and what she herself described as a “tide of paralysis” of projects, which caused Galicia to go from being the first autonomous region in the implementation of wind energy “to currently being fourth”. In her opinion, there is a legal uncertainty “that we have to stop and unblock” to advance along the path of energy transition, and she assured that Brussels “endorses and praises” this determination.

The councillor defended that the roadmap drawn up by the Xunta in this sense “is aligned with European objectives” of decarbonisation, but also of simplification in administrative procedures and respect for biodiversity and environmental sustainability. In this regard, he highlighted the draft Law on Simplified Environmental Administration that is being processed by the Xunta and that, having exceeded the deadline for public presentation, considered it “paradoxical” that it did not receive any contribution from the three environmental organisations that motivated the successive judicial suspensions of the wind farms with their complaints.

At the meeting, Vázquez also addressed the preliminary question that the High Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG) presented to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) to support the suspension of the projects on a legal basis. And although she stressed that the judicial bodies are “independent” of the Executive and that “we must let them work and wait for the conclusion,” she again defended that the Xunta complied scrupulously with the legal procedures in the environmental processing, as endorsed by the Supreme Court, and criticized that the TSXG is now questioning the transposition of a European regulation from 2013.

“We regret the paralysis and we regret not being able to comply with the goals we have set,” said the minister, regarding the deployment of renewable energies, before defending that the work carried out by the Xunta, as well as that carried out by the central Government in relation to the environmental processing, “is endorsed and well done.”

The meeting with Daniel Calleja, Director General of the Commission’s Legal Service, was the first stop for Ángeles Vázquez, who will also meet with Humberto Delgado, Director of Biodiversity, and with Lukasz Kolinski, Director of Green Transition and Energy System Integration. On her trip, the Minister is accompanied by Carmen Bouso, Secretary General of the Ministry of the Environment, the Director General Paula Uría and the MEP Adrián Vázquez, Vice President of the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.