As promised in Sunday morning’s algarvedailynews.com newsletter, here is the important information on the 'Anti Offshore Oil Drilling' class action that ASMAA lodged in Loulé’s Administrative and Fiscal Court, on how the class action is in danger of being kicked out of Court and on how we can make sure that doesn't happen.
At the end of this message, there is a link to letter for you to print off, fill in, scan and email to Loulé Court. Please help - it's five minutes max.
Portugal's blatantly pro-oil government is rattled and its lawyers successfully have petitioned the Judge to force ASMAA to collect letters of support that state that ASMAA is entitled to represent us in this 'class action.'
That first, hugely successful, petition collected over 42,000 signatures against the Galp-ENI oil test-well planned in the ocean off Aljezur.
The Court has issued a condition that must be met before the case can continue: citizens are invited to write to the Judge, stating that ASMAA is fully entitled to represent their views.
ASMAA now needs your support in order to ensure that the class action can proceed, not overturned solely on the basis of a procedural trick by the State-sponsored legal team.
Recent history:
- In April, ASMAA filed an action to request the cancellation of oil contracts in the Alentejo Basin, alleging the breach of various contractual and administrative procedures, and process illegalities.
- In August, ASMAA also challenged the January decision of the National Entidade Mercados Combustíveis (ENMC) and the supportive opinion of the Portuguese Environment Agency in May, regarding the lack of a requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment to be commissioned by the Galp-ENI consortium.
These two detailed and complex petitions are going well and the lawyers for the Government and Galp-ENI now are trying to annul the class action by saying ASMAA is not allowed to represent the thousands of people opposing oil drilling because the signatures were collected a while ago and people might have changed their minds.
An advertisement was published in Friday's 'O Público' (page 40) on the instruction of the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé, giving notice to all interested parties to state, within ten days of its publication, their willingness to be represented by ASMAA in the class action.
ASMAA has produced a draft letter (below) that states that you want ASMAA to represent you in the class action.
You do not have to be Portuguese for this letter to be accepted by the Court but you do need to be a citizen of an EU country.
To help stop the Galp-ENI test well, due to be drilled off Aljezur, have a read of the English version so you know what the letter says, and then fill in the Portuguese version, scan it and email it to the court:
filling in the Subject field with: Case 185 / 18.0BELLE-A
and please send a copy to:
or
A second option is to send a registered letter to the court containing a completed Portuguese version of the letter.
Judge Dr Maria Helena Paulino Costa Meirinho Filipe
Administrative and Fiscal Tribunal of Loulé
Unidade Orgânica Nº 1
Rua Dra. Laura Ayres,
8100-851, Loulé
If you do send a letter, please use the registered letter service whereby the recipient has to sign for it.
Also, it would be very helpful to scan the letter and email a copy to ASMAA, so it has a record.
DEADLINE
Please send the completed letter by mail or email as soon as possible this coming week, in fact why not do it now?
The last day to send the letter is next Friday, September 28th so there is very little time .
For information and if you have doubts please contact ASMAA by email:
or
ATTACHMENTS
Letter for European citizens (Portuguese and English versions) HERE
Letter for Portuguese citizens ONLY HERE
Download a copy of the advert in O Público HERE
Comments
Dear ED
The Judge will still NEED to give her award on the representation. But yes, we are grateful for the massive wave of support that we received in a few days. Now we have another few days to deal with the next claim ...which is that we are potential competitors to the concessionaries (ridiculous we know) …
Dear Brandon, fortunately we don't need all 42,000 to sign. By law we need a few dozens. We were targeting 100, we got 686 (even if the court disqualifies any declarations we will meet the requirements). Once accepted by the court, it means that we have proof that ALL that signed petitions will be represented. Turning this action into the biggest Class Action in Portugal. But it was a heavy work load in very short time frame.
I am proud to put my name to this appeal.
The State has my passport number anyway - and yours...