Portugal's Green party has put forward a motion that the government formally requests the Spanish government to decommission the Almaraz nuclear power station that lies just100kms over the border.
The motion has been accepted and parliament will vote on the matter, despite two ministers stating last week to a committee of inquiry that Portugal can not interfere in Spain’s domestic nuclear power plans.
Portugal's equally feeble Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Environment, on May 16th reported that “the decision to close or prolong the Almaraz nuclear power plant is the responsibility of the Spanish State," while failing to refer to the whitewash of an environmental report nor their earlier lie that 'Portuguese environmental groups had been consulted.'
Earlier that morning, a 2010 military report was leaked that estimated 800,000 people in Portugal would be contaminated with radiation should a nuclear accident happen that was the size of the Chernobyl fire and explosion.
The decision to have a vote on the matter makes the ministers look more awkwardly impotent and an official letter of complaint presented to the Spanish at the next Iberian Summit will be binned.
The Green’s motion demands that the power station be closed and demands that the government takes a firm position - a laughable aim as the government already has proved itself totally at the beck and call of the EU whose president put pressure on Portugal to withdraw its original and valid complaint against Spain.
In February, after this complaint was submitted under EU cross-border laws, Spain and Portugal agreed to settle their differences with the help of EU mediators.
This move then was scrapped when Jean-Claude Juncker insisted that Portugal withdraw its complaint which, meekly, the government did and has been trying make excuses ever since.
The conclusions of the Luso-Spanish Parliamentary Forum, held this weekend in Vila Real, did not make any direct reference to the issue of the Almaraz nuclear power plant, although the proximity of both countries was noted.
The conclusions of the meeting, in the field of energy, mentioned that "the commitment to deepening the mutual exchange of information" was reaffirmed, in a "spirit of dialogue and transparency" and within the framework of the European Union.
See also: 'Almaraz - minister prostitutes Portugal to Spanish interests'
