The deforestation of two sites in the port of Antwerp for a mega investment by the British chemical group Ineos has been stopped at the last minute.
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The Council for Permit Disputes decided on Friday to suspend the permit, allowing Ineos to deforest two large sites in the port of Antwerp. As a result, the largest industrial investment project in decades in the port is in danger of being significantly delayed. Ineos wants to invest billions of euros in the construction of installations that will produce raw materials for all kinds of plastics, including plastics, from 2023 or 2024.
At the British chemical company, they assume that a final decision on the validity of the deforestation permit can take six months. The first chairman of the Council for Permit Disputes, Eddy Storms, immediately makes it clear that this is a very optimistic estimate. He points out that the average turnaround time for a case is currently 15 months.
The British environmental lawyers collective ClientEarth, which took the lead in the emergency procedure, is already planning to request a definitive annulment of the deforestation permit.
At breakneck speed
The suspension decision of the Board of Licensing Disputes came in no time. It has only been two weeks since the Flemish Minister of the Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA) granted the deforestation permit. At the end of last week, a series of environmental and climate organizations requested an urgent procedure to prohibit the felling of the forest for the time being. So they have already made their mark on Friday. Much to Ineos’ disappointment, spokeswoman Nathalie Meert admits.
The permit is suspended because Ineos – on the basis of an initial, preliminary and brief investigation – would not have properly dealt with the rules for reporting environmental effects, says Storms. The suspension judgment states that the permit for the requested deforestation ‘does not contain a sufficient global assessment of the environmental effects that the total project may cause’.
Legal clue
That was also the recurring criticism from the environment in recent months. But Minister Demir saw no problem. Storms does not deny that the suspension decision can be seen as a ‘legal indication’.
According to Storms, the Council for Permit Disputes had to make a decision very quickly. They had been informed that Ineos wanted to start deforestation on Monday.
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