2023-05-29 22:04:22
He Minister council has agreed to request the President of the Government to file a appeal of unconstitutionality against him Extremaduran decree that obliges to treat in Extremadura the lithium extracted from its mines, which means that battery factories that want to use this resource can only set up there.
On August 31 of last year, the Extremadura joint who presides over the socialist Guillermo Fernández Vara approved a Autonomous norm to regulate the use of lithium mines in the community that guarantees “that the lithium reserves (in Extremadura) are exploited, throughout its cyclewithin its territory”.
The objective of the norm is that the industrial benefit stays in the region. In practical terms it means that the mineral available in Extremadura –where are the largest lithium mines of all the European Union— may only be used for produce batteries in factories located in this community. A kind of regional protectionism that the central government opposes.
As defended by the Executive in the reference of the Minister council, meeting that has been held in an extraordinary way to dissolve the courts after the call for elections, the minas are configured as public domain and, within the public domain, as natural public domainwhich belongs “in any case” to the State, as it forms part of the national wealth. “The dependence of its wealth on the autonomic territory implies bankruptcy of powers state regarding equal rightscivil legislation and bases in mining and energy matters, as well as the principle of equality and property rights“, defends the Executive.
Furthermore, it asserts that the establishment of a obligation to the dealer The fact that the treatment and benefit of lithium is carried out in Extremadura supposes a “violation of state competence in matters of economic planning, as well as the principles of market unity, free enterprise and free competition”.
And he adds that the mining concessions are additionally governed by the contract regulations of the public sector and, therefore, the establishment of a obligation as such to the concessionaire implies a violation of state competence in matters of public procurement, by imposing an obligation that is not related to the object of the contract. “All this could also violate European regulations,” he adds.
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A few months before Fernández Vara approved this norm, the leader of Unidas por Extremadura, Irene de MiguelHe asked him if there was some hidden pact with the battery factory that envision and act They have projected in Navalmoral de la Mata to be supplied with lithium from Cáceres, but the president of the Junta de Extremadura denied the major and assured that the factory did not come for the mines, but “because its time has come for this land”.
The European Union projects that up to 18 times more lithium and 5 times more cobalt will be needed by 2030, and by 2050 almost 60 times more lithium and 15 times more cobalt, compared to the current supply of the Union economy in as a whole, for the batteries of the electric vehicles and energy storage.
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