Žiško for Patria: Block 7 is a fraud, people will suffer for everything

(Patria) - With the construction of Block 7, Bosnia and Herzegovina will pay CO2 emission taxes, which was also warned by European Commissioner Johannes, as this is the practice in the European Union, and we claim we want to join the EU, says Denis Žiško, from the Center for Ecology and Energy from Tuzla, for Patria.

"So, the moment we join the EU, we will have to pay what Europeans pay. Secondly, these taxes will likely be implemented soon, even before joining the EU, through our membership in the Energy Community. CO2 emission taxes are millions that we will pay as a tax on electricity generated from coal," claims Žiško.

On the other hand, this activist from the Center for Ecology and Energy from Tuzla believes that there is a high probability that Bosnia and Herzegovina will have to pay penalties for illegal subsidies for the Block 7 loan. He notes that Janez Kopač also mentioned this when he warned BiH parliamentarians not to adopt the document by which the BiH Council for State Aid defined that the loan guarantee does not constitute state aid.

"That is not true," says Žiško, noting that BiH will later, after joining the EU, pay penalties, just as Slovakia and Hungary retroactively paid them because they provided guarantees for loans that were not in accordance with the rules.

When asked how politicized the whole Block 7 issue is, Žiško says that BiH "no one forced to sign contracts and make laws as we have them".

"In a normal society, if there is a law and you have signed a contract, then you have taken on all the obligations arising from that contract. The problem with our society is that we are not interested in laws and contracts, but in the amount of sanctions. If the sanctions are small, we behave like 'oh, just leave the law'. And that is the problem of our society in general, because our entire society functions on that principle. If a serious country signs some obligation, an international treaty or convention, it has committed itself with its signature to implement everything written in it. If it doesn't, then that country is not serious and then no one will come and invest in our country," says Žiško for Patria.

He believes that in the case of Block 7, it is not an investment.

"It is a loan with which we will pay Chinese workers to build a power plant with equipment they will import from China. So, it is not an investment, but a loan. Block 7 will not be built by local workers, but by Chinese ones. You have the example of Stanari, which was built with a Chinese loan, where a Chinese company brought 400-500 Chinese who built that power plant. I visited Stanari when they were building it, and soon in Tuzla we will have a settlement with prefabricated buildings where 500-600 Chinese will live and build TE Tuzla. We have similar cases in the region, because wherever a Chinese company works, it brings its own workers. We are not creating new jobs, nor are we stimulating our economy, and what little benefit there might be is for the construction sector, because they cannot bring concrete from China, so the construction sector working for certain parties will get contracts and the money will be distributed," emphasized Žiško.

To the statement that Chinese companies also work in the EU, Žiško says they got the jobs because they were cheaper.

"That is a completely different case and it is incomparable. Pelješac is an incomparable case with Block 7. For Pelješac, there was European money, a tender was issued, and the company that offered the best price was Chinese. In the case of Block 7, we have a Chinese loan, which is conditional on this loan only being spent by a Chinese company, meaning that 80 percent of the funds must be returned to that Chinese company," believes Žiško.

When asked about the environmental impact of Block 7, Žiško says that the CO2 emissions from Block 7 will be higher than from the blocks that are being shut down.

"They are also deceiving us about the feasibility study; they faked the price of CO2 emissions and estimated that the price of CO2 would be 7.2 euros, or around 14 euros per kilogram by 2030. The current price of CO2 emissions is 20 euros per kilogram. The whole story about Block 7 is fabricated so that during the investment period, the political parties leading all this can use it for political and other purposes. And the moment the loans start to be repaid, they will go to Europe and cry that they cannot repay the loan, and the Chinese are demanding their money, meaning there will be a drastic increase in electricity prices, because you have to collect money and repay the loan. How do you plan to collect money to repay the loan and pay for CO2, not to mention that they are not paying anything for pollution. That will come due one day," warned Žiško.

He also predicts that citizens will suffer because of all this.

"The political elites will go somewhere to their villas on Pelješac, and we, if any of us are left in BiH, will be tearing our hair out," concluded Žiško in an interview with Patria.