WHY THIS 3rd RUNWAY ? | ||||||||||||
CHAPTER 11 - THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ‘CSAAB’ 11) The body that will decide the preferential configuration of the airport, the air routes… starting in March 2002 will be The Commission for the Environmental Follow-up of the construction stages of the ‘Pla Barcelona’, better known as the CSAAB.
A) WHY WAS THE CSAAB CREATED ? One of the conditions –concretely the 11th condition– that the Environmental Impact Declaration (D.I.A.) requires for the expansion of the El Prat airport is the creation of a commission for the environmental follow up of the construction stages of the Pla Barcelona, better known as the CSAAB. Furthermore, the D.I.A. is published in the BOE (official Gazette) on January 18th, 2002, clearly specifying that the CSAAB must be established by the legal deadline of two months, which means that the commission should have been created by March 18th, 2002.
B) HOW WAS THE CSAAB CREATED ? On March 22nd, 2002 (4 days after the legal deadline) the CSAAB held its first meeting in the Executive Office of the Pla Barcelona. Dídac Pestaña, the mayor of Gavà, was present representing the City Council of Gavà. A representative of the ‘Ministerio de Fomento’ (Ángel Villa) explained how the same commission already created for the expansion of the Madrid-Barajas airport operates. (CSAAM). The Ministry for the Environment assured the City Council of Gavà that it would be considered a permanent member of the CSAAB and not only when it comes to issues dealing with noise, since it is building the new Center for Air Traffic Control within the municipality. The City Council of Castelldefels solicited the same treatment (even though there are no airport facilities located in its vicinity) and it obtained it in April 2002. It’s not until the fourth meeting of the CSAAB (July 12th, 2002) that the commission’s regulations of operation were proposed and approved.
C) HOW IS THE CSAAB OFFICIALLY REGULATED ? More than a year after the D.I.A.'s publication in the BOE, the Ministerial Order Pre/220 dating from February 5th, 2003 was published in the BOE on February 12th, 2003, meaning the official creation of the CSAAB. BOE - Order PRE-229-2003, by which the CSAAB was created
D) WHAT IS THE CSAAB’S SCOPE ? The general powers of the CSAAB include controlling and tracking the balance of preventive measures, corrections and compensations that arise during the construction phase and throughout the expansion process of the Barcelona airport. The CSAAB’s powers that are of a more particular character include:
E) WHAT IS THE COMPOSITION OF THE CSAAB ? With regards to tracking and controlling noise and approving the acoustic isolation plan, its make up is the following:
F) WHAT RULES GOVERN THE WAY CSAAB WORKS ? The governing rules will abide by that which is set out by the collegial organs in Chapter II of Section II of Law 30/1992, dating from November 26th, of the Judicial Regulation of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure. - Chapter II of Section II of Law 30/1992, from November 26th Decision-making actions are susceptible to appeals made at the level of the subsecretary of ‘Fomento’.
G) THE VIEW FROM GAVÀ MAR The CSAAB tries to create an image of democracy because of the many institutions represented, which is misleading from our point of view:
We, the associations of neighbors, don’t have representation, despite the fact that we have repeatedly requested it. We must carry out our requests through our respective City Councils. This is how paradoxes are created, just like the already existing one in Gavà Mar, in which AVV Gavà Mar has been defending the use of a specific operation in the West configuration (takeoffs from the third runway with a turn towards the sea) while the City Council of Gavà has been defending another possibility (takeoffs from the main runway) for a long time.
This is how things remained until the third runway was put into operation. The City Council of Gavà then realized that they clearly had been wrong and they needed to set things right by completely taking on the AVV Gavà Mar’s proposal.
The 8 state representatives represent 3 organizations, which could really be condensed into 2 organizations given that AENA and the ‘Ministerio de Fomento’ always have parallel aims –thus, the representatives add up to 5. The 8 Catalan representatives represent 8 different organizations; therefore, it is much harder to come to an agreement among them and furthermore each representative counts for only one vote. Quite the opposite, the ‘Ministerio de Fomento’ and AENA control 5 votes and the Ministry of the Environment –which has also been at the service of the ‘Ministerio de Fomento’ up to the middle of 2006– controls 3 votes.
3) Incongruities in the structure Why does the state Ministry of the Environment have 3 representatives while the Environmental Department of the Generalitat only has 1? Why does the state ‘Ministerio de Fomento’ have 2 representatives (and 3 more from AENA) while the Department of Territorial Politics of the Generalitat only has 1? Why have towns such as Begues and Sitges (Les Botigues de Sitges) been excluded from the CSAAB, even though they were later affected by the noise of the airplanes and will yet again be affected if the airport starts to operate with independent runways?
Imagine that one day votes are cast and the entire Catalan division comes to agree on the same standpoint (which is difficult because we are dealing with 8 different organizations) and the entire state division comes to agree on the exact opposite standpoint, thus creating a tie of 8 votes. What would happen next ? And who controls the presidency ???
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