While the municipality of Bettembourg stated that it was very reluctant regarding the project, Dudelange expressed criticism but concluded to be "generally in favour" of the idea due to the potential jobs the project could create. The municipality of Dudelange stated that it would approve the project, but not at any costs with both municipalities mainly expressing concerns over potential environmental impacts.
Thus, the project to build a Greek yoghurt factory between Bettembourg and Dudelange received – as had already been expected – a negative assessment from the municipality of Bettembourg. The latter criticised that public consultations for the project took place over the summer while also emphasising that it considered potential environmental impacts the biggest issue.
According to the assessment, the factory would create significant traffic and the expected production of 80,000 tons of Greek yoghurt per year was completely over the top. The assessment goes on to state that the factory had a water consumption the equivalent of two times Bettembourg's entire population, which raised concerns about what would happen during a drought. Another point of concern is wastewater. According to the local association of municipal cooperation, the factory would produce 3,100 m3 wastewater per day, which put the Alzette river in danger of "suffocating".
The mayor of Bettembourg, Laurent Zeimet from the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), stated in an interview with RTL that he was confident that the government would change its stance following the substantial negative feedback from local residents. He added that the project was completely incompatible with the goal to create sustainable and local agriculture.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Dudelange, Dan Biancalana from the Luxembourg Socialist Worker's Party (LSAP), said that in his opinion there were still a number of stages to clear before the final building permit was issued. He hopes that the company in question, Fage, will work on further optimisations in terms of water consumption, but also improve their traffic concept.
According to Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot, Fage was not treated differently than any other industrial company. Fayot stated in an interview on Radio 100,7 on Tuesday morning that while it was true that the state will fund the construction of a drainage system for Fage, this was "standard practice" for projects within industrial zones. On the other hand, Fayot stressed that the yoghurt producer paid for the environmental impact study themselves.
