Expansion of Barcelona airport bird protection zone 'unacceptable', says largest business group

The Catalan government on Tuesday approved the expansion of the bird protection zone in the Llobregat Delta, just outside Barcelona airport, to protect it from a possible expansion of the airport. 

The decision has sparked criticism from Catalonia's largest business group, Foment. Its president, Josep Sánchez Llibre, has branded the decision "unacceptable, irresponsible, inappropriate and shameful."

The criticism is heightened by the fact that the current Catalan government is acting and will be dissolved once the political parties reach an agreement on who will be appointed president. 

The president of Foment said the measure does not have "sufficient political support" and recalled that it had been rejected twice by the parliament. 

Sánchez Llibre said that the decision implies an "instrumental blockade" of a future expansion of the airport.

In the same line, the vicepresident of Foment, Baldiri Ros, criticized the government for giving "scientific information with little rigor to confuse the citizens."

"The Special Bird Protection Zone (ZEPA) kills the right to private property and makes inviable the economic activity of the region, as well as killing legal security, as any practice can be an environmental crime," he said. 

The business group is considering appealing the decision both in an administrative level as well as a judicial level to impede its application.