"We will not sit idly by," the association's president, Francisco Ferreira, told Lusa today.

According to the official, Zero has already made a legal assessment of the situation and, if necessary, will take legal action to temporarily regularise a situation that is actually not regularisable, because it is not possible to comply with the Noise Law.

One day after the Government announced Alcochete as the location for a new airport in the Lisbon area, to replace Humberto Delgado Airport (AHD), the environmental association met with the Minister of the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, with the issue being one of the main topics under debate.

Speaking to Lusa after the meeting, Zero's president explained that AHD's environmental impact statement (EIS) dates back to 2006 and provided for the airport to close in 2015, with a maximum of 180,000 movements per year and a maximum of 16 million passengers per year.

The truth is that almost a decade has passed and the annual movements are over 222,000, for more than double the number of passengers, 33 million.

Thus, said Zero, the airport is "illegal, because it is outside the licence".

"It was exceeded and there was no other assessment, because the impact on noise and air quality is illegal," in the words of Francisco Ferreira.

According to the official, the minister paid a lot of attention to the fact that AHD was operating without a legal framework from an environmental point of view, and understood the relevance of the issue.

The prime minister, he said, "is wrong when he says that it is necessary to expand from 38 to 46 movements per hour" (at AHB), because not even the 38 movements are legal.

"The Environmental Impact Assessment legislation is clear, if I have an airport expansion I have to do an environmental impact assessment".

As for the new airport, Francisco Ferreira admitted that Alcochete has environmental problems, but expressed "great satisfaction" at the end of the Montijo option, and that Alcochete will totally replace the current airport when it is ready.

The president of Zero said that the association told the minister that it agrees with a third bridge over the Tagus River in the Lisbon area, provided that it is only for rail, and with the Lisbon-Madrid connection.

But the association does not support a road and rail bridge.

Maria da Graça Carvalho, said Francisco Ferreira, explained to the association that the Government is negotiating with parliament the implementation of the climate framework law.

He added that the revision of the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC) will only be submitted to the European Commission at the end of the year and agreed that major issues requiring strategic environmental assessments could have a model similar to that of the independent technical commission that proposed new locations for the airport.

Zero, according to Francisco Ferreira, also questioned Maria da Graça Carvalho about the fact that Portugal is not part of the group of 11 countries that signed a document for the European Ecological Restoration Law to be approved at the last European Environment Council, scheduled for 17 June.

The minister said that there was no time to give an answer, but guaranteed that Portugal supports the document.

At the meeting, the minister is said to have agreed to appeal for consensus with other parties for the revision of the 2003 water law, in order to resolve issues related to the balance between groundwater and surface water, the fact that the price of water is not transparent in many activities, and the need for the focus not to be on supply, but on efficient use.

Read Also: Chega pede audição do ministro das Infraestuturas e da presidente da CTI (Portuguese version)