Hungarian Government Office preparing to take drastic action in CATL case

According to the portal, the Hajdú-Bihar County Government Office has asked the court to disregard the expert reports which deemed the official permit for the CATL plant in Debrecen to be incomplete and unlawful. According to the Government Office, the experts were unable to weigh the evidence objectively, ignored the facts, and failed to examine all the documents. This led them to form a biased opinion.

Last year, the court asked experts to determine the size of the area affected by the CATL plant. This would establish whether locals could sue over what they claimed was a defective permit. Civilians only have the right to sue if they can prove that they live within the affected area.

Defective permit

Two expert reports completed in March this year found that the factory's current permit is deficient in several areas. While the permit is adequate in terms of air quality, the documents found that it does not provide satisfactory answers regarding water use, noise pollution, or the impact on local waterways and wildlife.

The story of the CATL plant in Debrecen began in the summer of 2022 with the announcement of the HUF 3,000 billion investment, the largest project in Hungary's history. The first phase of the project, valued at around HUF 1,000 billion, was originally scheduled for completion in 2025, but this may be pushed back to 2026.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) permit for the factory was issued by the Government Office in February 2023 and was subsequently amended. The new version states that there are no longer any people living within the factory's boundaries. However, according to locals, the permit was not issued in accordance with the law, as it underestimates the factory's environmental impact.

Worrying expert opinions

The first expert opinion was prepared by Zoltán Verrasztó, a hydrogeologist and environmental engineer. He found that the area of influence was much larger than indicated in the permit. According to him, the permit did not adequately address the impact of the factory's water demand and increased truck traffic, which could lead to higher noise levels and reduce property values in the area.

Csaba Varga, a wildlife and landscape expert, provided the second expert opinion. He stated that no assessment had been carried out before the permit was issued to determine the impact of noise emissions, lighting, groundwater mitigation, and the impact of collected groundwater and stormwater runoff on wildlife.

According to Árpád Halász, the lawyer who represented the local residents in the lawsuit, the expert opinions revealed so many deficiencies that the court should annul CATL's licence to operate and restart the licensing procedure.

In May, it was suggested that the handover of the factory could be delayed by up to a year, due to delays in sewage and water development projects, as well as the lengthy permit process. While CATL claims that everything is going according to plan, internal sources say that the company is anticipating a delay.

In its motion, the Government Office claims that the expert opinions "completely fail to demonstrate a logical relationship between the proven facts and the overwhelmingly subjective expert findings". They also complain that the parties were not permitted to take part in the experts' on-site visit.

According to Árpád Halász, the government agency is "grasping at straws", and excluding the experts would not mean the end of the case; it would simply mean that new experts would have to be appointed. He added that the parties had not previously challenged the experts when they had the opportunity to do so.

Although it is unclear whether any court decision could affect the start of the factory, the main issue at stake in the lawsuit is the timing and circumstances of the start of production.

Meanwhile, CATL has announced that construction of the second phase of its three-phase factory has been suspended indefinitely. The company cited the uncertainty surrounding US President Donald Trump's tariff war as the reason for this decision, but added that the investment could resume if the market situation improves.

Cover photo: Portfolio