The heads of the ruling coalition parties in Croatia held an emergency meeting today, convened by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, due to the hazardous waste case in Lika and the growing political pressure on the government to speed up the remediation and determination of responsibility.
A meeting of the government's inner cabinet was also held, and Plenković emphasized at an extraordinary conference that the problem is being resolved at the criminal-legal and remedial levels, while accusing the opposition of using the case to score political points and spread panic among the population.
The affair concerns the illegal dumping of large amounts of waste at several locations in Lika, including Gospić, Štikada and Lički Osik. USKOK launched an investigation last year against Josip and Monika Šincek and other suspects, and the case has since expanded to include new locations and additional individuals, Indeks reminds.
Plenković spoke about the affair two days ago in Sinj. When asked how it was possible that no one noticed the trucks carrying around 37.000 tons of waste to Gospić and whether it was corruption, he replied: "I don't know. All of that will be determined in the investigation."
The parliamentary opposition is also demanding responsibility, but no one showed up to the meeting of all clubs and parliamentary parties that Most called at noon, HRT reports. The Social Democratic Party, Mozemo, and Center MP Marijana Puljak announced in advance that they would not participate.
Opposition parties are demanding the resignation or impeachment of the Government and urgent rehabilitation, while the ruling Homeland Movement is proposing declaring an ecological disaster in Lika.
The Ministry claims that it has been undertaking remediation activities with the Fund from day one, and an extraordinary session of the Parliamentary Committee for Environmental and Nature Protection has been called in Gospić for Friday.
A number of opposition parties on Monday requested an emergency session of Parliament, and Croatian President Zoran Milanović called on the Government to urgently clean up the waste in Gospić.
Plenković: Problem treated on three levels
At an extraordinary press conference, Plenković said that the waste situation in Gospić was discussed at meetings of the government's inner cabinet and the ruling coalition.
"The entire problem has been treated on three levels. The first is criminal law, which is led by the State Prosecutor's Office and USKOK. The period that the State Prosecutor's Office is dealing with is a period of five, six years. I do not know the details of that procedure nor can I speak about them," he said, as reported by HRT.
The second level, he added, relates to waste remediation. The Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund is responsible for it, and activities are coordinated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
As a third level, he singled out political reactions to the case and criticized the actions of the opposition.
"The third is the political, I would say politicized level led by the opposition and some other actors, trying to extract some political points from these topics and spread panic among the residents of Gospić and Lika-Senj County through disinformation," he said.
Plenković assessed that the opposition, encouraged by the results of public opinion polls and changing political trends, used the waste situation to attract media attention.
"At the meeting, we had not only representatives of the Environmental Protection Fund, but also Mr. Krunoslav Capak from the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), who explained that all measurements by the HZJZ clearly indicate that there is no threat to drinking water in Lika. We asked the HZJZ to inform the public about the quality of the water within a period of three to four days," he said.
Further remediation activities, he pointed out, depend on criminal proceedings and investigations.
"The Fund and the ministry could only launch public calls for remediation after they had received all the information. Unfortunately, there were no interested institutions at the first public call, which was a few months ago. At this moment, the public call for waste is being repeated at the external level," he continued.
"Out of a total of 37 thousand tons, 32 thousand tons were buried at the location of the former Velebit PKK, and a public tender was issued for five thousand tons on the surface," he added.
The Croatian Prime Minister explained that buried waste can be said to contain hazardous waste.
"The procedure here is that we have to find appropriate companies that are able to dispose of such waste. Croatia does not have an appropriate location or facility for that. The EPEEF has currently contacted as many as 70 entities that deal with such waste," he said.
"Those who committed these criminal acts and caused soil contamination will not only be held accountable in criminal proceedings, but the state will later turn to them and seek financial compensation for the funds for remediation," said Plenković.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Fund, he added, have been instructed to accelerate all activities to remediate the landfill. "The government is approaching this very responsibly and is not underestimating the problem," he stressed.
He also announced the participation of the ruling party in the Committee for Environmental and Nature Protection, adding that all MPs from the ruling majority will participate in the meeting in Gospić.
The Croatian Prime Minister did not rule out the possibility of a direct deal for the rehabilitation, but only after the public call has been exhausted. "The negotiation process is the second way after the public call has been exhausted. The deadline is August 25th," he said. "The same people who are now pushing us and putting a lot of pressure on us to do something urgently, even outside of legal procedures, would be the first to create hysteria tomorrow because the Government would 'favor' company X or Z tomorrow," he added.
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