Meeting in Faro on Monday, AMAL – the intermunicipal community of Algarve mayors – threw down the gauntlet, reaffirming wholehearted opposition to exploration contracts handed out in the dying days of the last government.
Requesting a meeting with secretary of state for energy Jorge Seguro Sanches, the mayors said in a statement that as far as they are concerned any kind of drilling activity “will bring negative results to the economic activity of the region, particularly the tourism sector” at the same time falling short of all options for a sustainable future “defended by economic agents” and politicians.
The meeting is aimed at keeping Seguro Sanches “properly informed” over feelings within the Algarve community.
It comes, the mayors add, in the vacuum in which legal challenges submitted months ago still languish.
In case the bids lodged with Loulé’s fiscal and administrative court fail, the mayors have stressed that they will simply find other avenues to defend their position.
AMAL’s reality check comes in the wake of Friday’s news from the government that it is still in a position to rescind contracts signed with untried company Portfuel despite Portfuel’s insistence that this deadline has lapsed (click here).
