The Ministry Complains as Environmentalists Sue It to the European Greens

The Ministry of Environmental Protection stated today that the fact that environmental protection associations are addressing the Club of the European Green Party in the European Parliament with a request for urgent intervention towards Croatian state bodies due to the non-functioning of environmental protection is “not a novelty and a surprise as it is a constant activity of some associations and their activists.”

“What ultimately turns out to be unfounded complaints, but rather a way for them to promote themselves, does not hinder them, especially during the election campaign when they are particularly inspired. It would be good for the president of the association ‘Eko Kvarner’, Vjeran Piršić, to inform the public about all the legal mechanisms that associations in Croatia exhausted before the EU,” states the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction.

Piršić emphasized at yesterday’s press conference that certain industrial facilities are polluting the environment and endangering the health and lives of citizens, and that the associations gathered in the “Committee for the Protection of Citizens of the Republic of Croatia from Industrial Pollution” decided to pressure domestic institutions “because they do not react to a large number of occasional or permanent cases of severe pollution.”

The Ministry responds that it is “interesting that associations today are discovering polluters with a long history, such as Salonit or the Oil Refinery in Sisak, which has existed for more than 70 years, and they build a theory that the environmental protection system is collapsing precisely in this mandate when it has been established and when concrete projects and programs in environmental protection have been launched based on new legal regulations.”

The Ministry cites examples such as the implementation of a remediation program for the Sisak Refinery, within which the facility that most affects the reduction of air pollution has been reconstructed. It reminds that the remediation of Salonit and Mravinačka Kava is ongoing and that for the second year, the hazardous waste from the former alumina factory in Obrovac is being remediated, the copper coking plant is being remediated, and many other projects have been carried out of which the public has been informed.

The Ministry emphasizes that the regulations based on which all types of useful waste are very successfully collected are known to the public, and that “based on rigorous and constant inspection control, the ‘Rockwool Adriatic’ factory was temporarily closed during trial operation, and the companies Kvasac and Pliva were criminally reported.” These are all examples of interventions that were not applied before 2004,” the statement reads.

The claim that Croatia is manipulating reports for the EU is laughable, as is the underestimation of the bodies and experts of the EU who monitor the development of the environmental protection area in Croatia, just as the claim that Croatian regulations allow “higher emissions of toxic gases” is laughable and incorrect, it adds. Of course, this can only be claimed by someone who is not familiar with the new Environmental Protection Act, aligned with EU guidelines, emphasizes the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction. (Hina)