As a follow-up to the amicable settlement facilitated and put together by the Commission on 21 January, Spain and Portugal concluded an agreement on the margins of the European Council on Saturday 29 April, for the Spanish nuclear waste storage project at Almaraz, near the Spanish-Portuguese border.
In a joint statement, Prime Minister Rajoy and Prime Minister Costa, the respective leaders of Spain and Portugal and President Junker explained, “Our agreement relies solidly on a set of joint operational conclusions. These conclusions lay down the path for the implementation of the agreement and offer strong guarantees for all parties. Thanks to the continued assistance and mediation by the European Commission in this process we have reached an agreement to the benefit of all of us. We commit to implement it faithfully”.
Following a visit by the Portuguese authorities and representatives of the European Commission to the Almaraz site on 27 February, the Spanish authorities shared a “substantial amount” of detailed information on the environmental and safety aspects of their project for a temporary spent fuel storage facility. The Commission explained that this allowed for the comprehensive evaluation of potential trans-boundary effects of the storage facility.
On this basis, the Portuguese authorities organised a public consultation enabling the Portuguese public to access information on the project in the same way as the Spanish public. The analysis by the Portuguese authorities resulted in recommendations to assuage their concerns regarding the potential transboundary effects of the storage facility in their territory. The Spanish authorities and European Commission services agreed with the issues raised.
The Spanish independent nuclear safety authority – the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) provided assurances that the measures the CSN will require from the Almaraz facility will fully deal with the recommendations made. In a reinforced spirit of cooperation, the parties have also agreed to continue exchanging information on the Almaraz temporary spent fuel storage facility. To this end, the Spanish authorities invited the Portuguese authorities to nominate representatives who will attend the annual information meeting informing the public on questions related to the operation of the Almaraz nuclear power plant.
The Spanish authorities agreed to share with the Portuguese authorities any other relevant information about the temporary spent fuel storage facility.
As part of amicable settlement of 21 February, Spain agreed to suspend its spent nuclear fuel storage project at Almaraz, to allow the authorities in Spain and Portugal time to organise a consultation. In exchange, Portugal agreed to withdraw its complaint submitted to the Commission on 16 January, following the decision made at the end of December 2016 by Spain, authorising the construction of a nuclear waste facility at the Almaraz plant (see EUROPE 11730). (Emmanuel Hagry)