Court annuls environmental permit issued for the private mine 'Bistrica'

(Patria) - The decision by which the concessionaire "DRVO-EXPORT" d.o.o. Teslić was issued an environmental permit for coal ore exploitation at the "Bistrica" deposit near Prijedor has been annulled in court proceedings.

Following lawsuits filed by the Center for Environment (Center) and a group of residents of Bistrica, a panel of judges at the District Court in Banja Luka determined that the environmental permit was issued contrary to the law.

Namely, after the concessionaire was exempted from preparing an Environmental Impact Study, in the process of obtaining the environmental permit, the competent ministry decided on an incomplete application by the investor, i.e., without a prepared and submitted remediation and recultivation project. The verdict can be found at this LINK.

The court also confirmed the plaintiffs' arguments that, given the premature implementation, the environmental permit could not adequately establish protection measures, because the "baseline state" had been usurped.

"The impact of the annulment of the environmental permit on the concession should be immediate, but also decisive for the very possibility of continuing the implementation of the disputed concession. This is especially because we have continuously pointed out the dangers of legalizing the factual situation on the ground, i.e., premature mining works for which there were no legal prerequisites. However, in addition to this, we certainly expect that this decision will be important evidence in the civil lawsuit recently filed by a group of Bistrica residents against authorities and the investor for violations of basic human rights," stated Redžib Skomorac, legal advisor at the Center.

The Center, in addition to challenging the disputed permit, also provided legal representation for a total of thirty-two residents of Bistrica and surrounding villages, who, with the help of lawyers, also initiated administrative proceedings.

"The court confirmed our lawsuit allegations that works at the site in question began before the concession was granted for them, and before reports used for issuing the environmental permit were obtained. For this reason, the true 'baseline' state of the environment, as it existed before the works and as it should have been protected by the environmental permit, was not established. Given these facts, and that the verdict confirms our lawsuit allegations, it is unclear how a lawful environmental permit could ever be issued in this case, because that permit should protect the baseline state of the environment, not the state of the environment altered by the project's impact," stated Dragana Stanković, a lawyer from Banja Luka who represented the group of residents.

Given that this concessionaire currently does not possess a valid act establishing all environmental protection measures necessary for the lawful implementation of the concession in question, all activities at the site of this deposit must be suspended until the legal conditions for them are eventually met. The final and enforceable court decision has been submitted to the competent republic inspectors, along with a request for the immediate suspension of works.

"Although one of the more significant in recent practice, the importance of the court decision is somewhat diminished by the fact that the court did not grant the residents' request to postpone the permit's enforcement until the decision was made, which could have significantly reduced the harmfulness of the works. The plaintiffs are persons directly affected by the project, i.e., their human rights and property. The court therefore had grounds to intervene earlier and order a suspension, especially since it was the only mechanism to prevent greater damage, as inspection oversight had no impact on the pace of works," added Skomorac.

We advise the competent ministries to proceed with particular caution in this and other cases where the concessionaires are private entities. We especially draw attention to the case of the coal deposits "Bukova kosa" and "Medna", and other planned projects for the exploitation of mineral resources by private companies. Representatives of public authorities must direct much greater efforts towards protecting the human rights and interests of local communities exposed to harmful projects.

Finally, we demand that the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology enable public consultations in the process of deciding on a new environmental permit, and provide the interested public with insight into the supplementary evidence that the concessionaire is obliged to prepare and submit.