'Portugal has failed to respect citizens’ rights over contested lithium mine’

The UN Committee overseeing the Aarhus Convention has ruled that Portugal failed to respect citizens’ rights to environmental information and public participation in the case of the Barroso lithium mine – declared a European “strategic project” in March 2025, in spite of vehement local opposition. In its recent conclusion of a process ongoing since 2021, the UN Aarhus Convention Committee found that the Portuguese environmental agency (APA) did not respond to requests for environmental information within legal deadlines, and when refusing, failed to inform citizens how to appeal. Both APA and the regional administration (CCDR-N) withheld key data on unfounded grounds. The mining authority (DGEG) also breached the Convention by redirecting an information request, despite holding the requested documents. The Committee also found that public participation was undermined during the 2023 Environmental Impact Assessment: the environmental agency gave unreasonably short deadlines for commenting and failed to release crucial documents at the start of consultation.

…The ruling calls for urgent structural reforms to Portuguese law and administrative practices to ensure that communities have full access to information and a genuine voice in environmental decision-making. The Montescola Foundation, Unidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso (UDCB), and MiningWatch Portugal stress that the Committee confirmed what they have long denounced: “the environmental assessment process failed to guarantee public participation. Political agendas often overrode transparent and independent scrutiny, leading to repeated failures by authorities to ensure access to information and participation”. Carla Gomes of UDCB comments: “This decision proves our criticism of the evaluation process was never unfounded. Violating the right to information and participation is reason enough to annul APA’s 2023 Environmental Impact Statement and restart the process from zero. We hope it forces authorities to reflect and move towards transparent assessments and respectful engagement with affected communities. So far, our experience has been terrible.”

…Joam Evans, president of the Montescola Foundation welcomed the decision, saying: “Montescola will work with UDCB and MiningWatch Portugal to protect Barroso’s WorldAgricultural Heritage and ensure this ruling is not swept aside. Authorities have already ignored Dr. Steven Emerman’s warnings about mine waste risks to the Beça, Tâmega, and Douro rivers. Now we need concrete action: the environmental permit issued must be revoked – and we will not stop until it is.” All of this will be music to the ears of the local people fighting tooth and nail against this project for the obvious reasons that it is already – and will in future even further – negatively affect rural life and livelihoods, and may well end up polluting the aquifers on which so many families depend. In 2023, the Covas do Barroso parish council initiated legal action to annul the project’s environmental permit. Now, the three entities fighting together will “add other strategies to the legal route, to achieve this goal”, vows a press release issued by the UDCB.