The European Commission today ordered Lusa to “closely monitor” the investigation into lithium and hydrogen deals in Portugal reportedly involving European funds, guaranteeing that it has no further information and referring the matter to the national authorities.
“We are of course closely monitoring the situation. Investigations are being conducted at national level by the competent authorities”points to an official source from the European Commission in response to the Lusa agency.
“The Commission does not have any further information,” said the same source, when asked about investigations carried out in Portugal on Tuesday involving lithium and hydrogen companies, reportedly beneficiaries of European funds, which led to at least 42 searches and arrests of five people. .
In July this year, the European Commission chose two projects in the Port of Sines, out of a total of 41 large-scale projects in the field of clean technologies, to receive a total financing of 3.6 billion through the Union Innovation Fund European ( EU).
The choice included preparing grants.
According to information released by the European Commission at the time, the 41 projects, chosen from 239 applications, should be operational before 2030, in order to avoid CO2 emissions of 221 million tons in the first ten years of their existence.
At stake was H2Sines, mentioned in the Portuguese press as one of the investigations in Operation Influencer, a maritime supply chain of renewable liquid hydrogen between this port and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.
This project, chosen in the decarbonization category, provided for the construction of an electrolyser, a large-scale liquefaction unit and export facilities, as well as the storage of liquid hydrogen in the port of Sines (via a fuel cell vessel). Rotterdam, according to the information on the website of the community board.
Another project chosen to receive funding from the EU Innovation Fund, but already falling into the industrial electrification and hydrogen category, was GREENH2ATLANTIC, which aimed to develop a ‘green’ hydrogen production system using alkaline pressure technology.
According to Brussels, the electricity needed for hydrogen production is expected to be supplied by additional solar energy and additional wind power, via the electricity grid.
Since ‘green’ hydrogen, together with lithium, is one of the spearheads in the EU, the community administrator is currently preparing a new law on critical raw materials, which aims to guarantee a safe and sustainable supply, as well as the competitiveness of the European industrial sector.
However, similar to what is happening in Portugal, European citizen movements are contesting this bet, including the organization WeMove Europe, which launched the online petition ‘Stop selling people and nature to mining’, which already has more than 38,000 signatures.
The petition, which is also promoted by Portugal’s ‘No to Mines’ movement, argues that the new European Critical Raw Materials Act ‘violates fundamental human and environmental rights and focuses on large-scale mining exploitation rather than solutions based on the health of all living beings”.
“We demand that the European Parliament and industry ministers reject the law,” the call reads.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, asked the President of the Republic to resign on Tuesday, who accepted.
António Costa is the target of an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service at the Supreme Court, after suspects in a lithium and hydrogen trading case put forward his name for intervening to unblock proceedings in the projects under investigation.
Tuesday’s operation by the Public Prosecution Service was based on at least 42 searches and led to the arrest of five people, accusing the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, and the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, Nuno Lacasta.
Source: DN
