The position of the Office of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro is that the state has a legal basis and that it should terminate the concession agreement with the company "Brskovo Mine" on geological research and ore exploitation in the area of the former mine "Brskovo" near Mojkovac, a deputy from the office announced today Protector Slavica Laković at the session of the newly established Interdepartmental Working Group for the preparation of an expert analysis of this concession contract.
The working group was formed by the Minister of Energy and Mining, Saša Mujović, and it has a deadline of 30 days to make a recommendation to the Government regarding this concession.
Yesterday, representatives of the concessionaire could not answer the question of "Vijesti" whether they will sue the state for compensation in case the contract is terminated.
"We cannot announce the official position in order not to influence the work of the working group", it was announced to "Vijesta"
The mine was given under concession in 2010, and since then the concessionaire has changed several owners. I changed the basic contract six times with annexes, where deadlines for fulfilling certain obligations were extended. Geological research was supposed to be completed in four years and continued into 2020.
The protector bases his position on the annex four of the contract, in which the concessionaire agreed to bear the risk if the spatial planning documentation is not adopted and if urban technical conditions (UTU) are not issued, as well as that the deadline for obtaining the UTU from the last annex of the contract expired on 25 July last year.
The concessionaire's lawyer, Luka Popović, said that this is an ambiguity in the contract to the detriment of the concessionaire, but that he believes that there must be a breach of the contract by the concessionaire in order for the state to terminate the contract to its detriment. He referred to Article 39 of the basic contract, according to which all deadlines for the concessionaire's obligations are extended for the period of the state's delay in its obligations, as well as the state's delay of three years in the adoption of spatial planning documentation, which has still not been adopted.
The President of the Working Group and State Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Mining, Vesna Brajović, and the members of the group, Deputy Protector Slavica Laković and councilor in the Mojkovac SO, Miloš Rajković, disagreed with that interpretation, stating that by signing the annex to the contract, the concessionaire accepted the risk of not issuing the UTU for construction of facilities needed for ore exploitation, and that the deadlines for that have now expired.
Rajković said that the contract enables termination of the concession even if the concessionaire provides incorrect information in the documentation, which, he said, this concessionaire has done several times.
The representative of the concessionaire, Zoran Arsenijević, said that this refers to the communication of incorrect data on the quantities of exploited ore, on which the amount of the variable concession depends, and not to incorrect data in other documentation. Rajković replied that this was not true.
Labor member Miodrag Fuštić from the citizens' initiative "For a healthy Mojkovac" said that this interpretation of concessionaires means that there are no deadlines for them to fulfill their obligations and that this situation can last forever. He stated that the concessionaire is an offshore company with no assets and that the state would not be able to compensate them for the environmental damage caused by the operation of the mine.
Popović said that "Brskovo Mine" is not an offshore company but an LLC registered in Montenegro, as well as that its owner, the offshore company "Tara Resources", cannot bear responsibility for the work of his company. He said that they have a bank guarantee of half a million euros for the current works, and that it will be higher when the ore exploitation begins.
Rajković said that he will not enter the phase of ore exploitation. He also stated that this concessionaire company is not a mining company but a lobbyist, that its goal was to obtain permits for the exploitation of ore from the previous government and then resell them.
"Former Minister of Capital Investments Ervin Ibrahimović wants to give blank support to this concessionaire," said Rajković.
Today's meeting ended with a short presentation by the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Milan Gazdić, who said that the area of the possible future mine is located in the immediate vicinity of two protected areas of the Biogradska gora National Park and the Tara River, and that the Agency has not received a single request from a concessionaire for the issuance consent.
The President of the Working Group, Vesna Brajović, said that ecology is the topic of the next session, which will be held on Monday.
Members of the working group are representatives of several government departments, the Mojkovac Municipal Assembly, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute for Public Health, non-governmental environmental organizations and concessionaires.
The working group started its work today and will work for the next 30 days and have meetings every Monday and Friday.
At the end of its work, the Working Group will adopt the text of the recommendation to the Government regarding this issue by majority vote.
Mujović: There will be neither winners nor losers
Minister Mujović opened the session by stating that the Brsko mine is an important state issue, that it should be discussed at public sessions and that subsequent meetings of the working group will also be open to the public.
"There will no longer be an imposed unanimity. Decisions will no longer be made behind closed doors," said Mujović.
He stated that this issue shapes the fate of Mojkovac and the north in economic and demographic terms, as well as that regardless of the final decision, there will be no winners or losers.
The minister said that in this and similar cases, the non-governmental sector and the media are a corrective factor.
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