King of Spain to mediate in Metsä-Botnia pulp mill dispute

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Spain has agreed to mediate in the Finnish Metsä-Botnia pulp mill dispute between Argentina and Uruguay. The decision was announced at the annual Ibero-American Summit of heads of state in Montevideo on Saturday.
      King Juan Carlos of Spain consented to the request made by Argentina's President,Néstor Kirchner, to act as a mediator in the conflict that has been straining relations between Uruguay and Argentina. The government of Uruguay confirmed on Saturday that it would accept the proposal.
     
Argentina became nervous earlier last week about the news that the Uruguayan government would allow the pulp factory that Metsä-Botnia is setting up in Fray Bentos in Uruguay, close to the Argentine border, to have larger than planned rights to the water of the River Uruguay. The Argentine government sent Uruguay a furious note of protest.
      Metsä-Botnia, a company jointly owned by the Finnish forest industry companies UPM and the Metsäliitto Group, decided in March 2005 to build a large pulp factory on the banks of the River Uruguay. The decision was based on an environmental survey and the appropriate permits from the authorities of Uruguay.
     
The factory is scheduled for opening in the autumn of 2007, and it is to have an annual output capacity of one million tonnes of short-fibre eucalyptus pulp. Once completed, the mill should employ about 5,000 people.
      While the Argentines feel the mill would pollute the water in the river on the border between the two countries and spoil the air in the region, both the Uruguayan government and the the political opposition alike support the undertaking, as it will provide the country with jobs and prosperity.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Argentine opponents of Botnia pulp mill bring case to Finland (30.8.2006)
  Botnia pulp factory centre of dispute between Argentina and Uruguay (10.1.2006)
  Metsä-Botnia to build massive pulp factory in Uruguay (8.3.2005)

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