Andorran minister: parish government responsible for contested Escaldes high‑rise

Environment Minister and government spokesman Guillem Casal said the high‑rise now under construction at Prat del Roure in Escaldes‑Engordany — a project that has required the closure of a playground and a parking area — is the responsibility of the current parish government, which he argued had the tools to prevent or alter it by revising the applicable urban plan.

Casal told the ANA news agency that public outcry is driven more by the towers’ visibility than by an increase in environmental degradation: “the presence of the towers in the middle of the central valley does not make for greater or lesser environmental degradation than before,” he said, adding that if they “had been placed in a very hidden, very beautiful and very rich area of the Madriu valley, where very few people go, no one would have raised the alarm because they wouldn’t have seen them.” He also stressed that the Madriu is a protected natural area and said such towers “should not be” placed there.

While acknowledging that earlier planning rules made some towers possible, Casal argued that responsibility for projects moving forward lies with current local authorities. He pointed to precedents such as Canillo, where a recent modification of its parish plan reduced permitted building height by at least one storey and cut allowed built surface by about 50%, and said Escaldes‑Engordany could have pursued a similar revision if it opposed the development.

Casal also noted that older project filings do not remain automatically valid: projects expire if not advanced within a set period and must be resubmitted. “Not because a project was filed ten years ago does it mean I can take it out of a drawer and implement it,” he said.

Background to the dispute includes a multi‑stage update of Escaldes‑Engordany’s parish plan. Reported accounts place the Clot d’Emprivat process beginning with a POUP revision in mid‑2018; after that revision, applications for four towers were filed in 2019. A further modification of the POUP was approved in March 2023 with changes to urban criteria and released ground‑level space, and works on three additional towers began in December 2025.

Media reports have linked earlier planning approvals to a consulate that included current Social Affairs Minister Trini Marín; Casal rejected attempts to attribute the current construction directly to those officials, saying the towers already built are the result of past mandates but “those that will be built from now on will be the consequence of decisions taken during the current six‑year term.”

Framing the debate as one of responsibility over time, Casal urged public discussion to focus on present choices and on local councils’ capacity to use planning tools to shape future development. He has recently taken on the additional post of secretary‑general of Demòcrates per Andorra.