Anti-oil campaign group PALP has called for the public to attend an open debate this coming Saturday, 30th July about the government’s oil and gas exploration and extraction licensing off the Algarve coast.
Saying the debate could be another step forward in having the concession licenses declared void, or simply having them cancelled, the meeting Clube Farense, Faro at 9pm, will give members of the public the chance to question MPs from across the political spectrum on why things have got to where they are, why has there been so little public debate and what can be done to challenge the legality of the contracts now that they have been signed.
PALP says MPs are scheduled to attend from the Left Bloc, People Animals Nature, the Communists, the Greens, the Social Democrats and the ruling Socialist party.
Portugal's President was in Loulé last Thursday and failed to move the oil and gas debate along with his flippant responses to earnest questions on government policy.
Exhortations that he intervene and see that the oil and gas concession licenses were investigated and cancelled as ‘not in the public interest’ were avoided.
The lack of public debate and the secrecy under which the concession agreements were signed have led to widespread protest across the Algarve region, many of whose residents and visitors do not want to see the region turned into an oil or gas production zone which they see as a threat to wildlife and tourism.
Meanwhile, action group ASMAA has been investigating and publicising the widespread and deeply corrupt business practices of Italian oil giant ENI which has an offshore concession agreement in partnership with Galp Energia, owned 38% by Amorim Energia, B.V. based in the Netherlands for tax reasons.
