Background
Plans to establish a Regional Waste Center in the community of Lecevica in the Dalmatia region of Croatia have met with fierce opposition from the local population. For seven years now, all kind of public and legal actions have been undertaken. This case shows great neglect of the environment, good governance, respect of law and implementation of agreements with the European Union and other European institutions. After a long struggle in Croatia the spokespersons of the concerned environmental and communal groups and institutions feel obliged to call upon the European institutions to make proper investigations and stop their support for this project.
The Council of the European Green Party, meeting in Vienna:
Considering:
the status of the Republic of Croatia as an applicant country to the European Union
the agreement between the European Union and Croatia on the protection of karst areas and underground waters
the approval of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development of 1.8 million Euro for the envisaged Waste Disposal Centre
the legal documents of the Republic of Croatia such as: the Strategy on Disposal of Waste, the Act on the Protection of Nature, the Act on Protection of Waters, the Act on Waste, the Act on Local Self-Government, the Act on the Protection of Speleological Caves
the absence of legally necessary decisions according to Croatian law concerning investigations and planning of a Regional Waste Disposal Centre in the community of Lecevica
the still pending case at the Constitutional Court of Croatia concerning the procedural legality of the County Area Plan
that the area in question is a highly sensitive karst region, causing absence of a surface hydrologic network,
that it is an important region of underground waters for four rivers, making the area a strategic water reserve
that it is an seismic active region
that the environmental investigation was not only carried out without the approval of the local community which Croatian law requires but even against the specific forbiddance of those investigations by the local community (3rd of October 2000)
that the above mentioned investigation was not carried out in full as was foreseen in the specifications of this research
the outcome of the scientific symposium on the disposing of wast in Dalmatian Hinterland, 7th of May 2005
calls upon the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other interested European institutions:
to immediately withold its support for this project
to carry out a full investigation concerning all aspects of this project such as protection of the environment and precautionary principle, good governance, respect of law as well as the possible misuse of allocated funds
