RSS
PM Mihai Tudose: We will try to withdraw the Rosia Montana file from UNESCO
Prime Minister Mihai Tudose said on Tuesday he does not believe that the Romanian state will lose in the lawsuit against Gabriel Resources, which demands damages of USD 4.4 billion for not awarding the gold mining project at Rosia Montana and has accused the Dacian Ciolos Government that in the last days of the mandate has submitted the necessary documents to UNESCO to declare the entire area naturally protected, which is why there will be no more exploitations there, if UNESCO completes the procedure to declare the area as naturally protected, hotnews.ro reports quoted by romaniajournal.ro.
Tudose said that former Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos should give explanations regarding the decision to ask UNESCO to declare the Rosia Montana a naturally protected area.
He argued that Romania would no longer be able to exploit the mineral resources of Rosia Montana if this area, saying that the cancellation of the procedure initiated by the Ciolos Government is hard to achieve.
USR Senator Mihai Gotiu warned on Tuesday that the government is preparing to withdraw the Rosia Montana file from UNESCO and has accused the government of preparing to ‘make an understanding’ in the Washington litigation, to conceal the truth about how Gabriel Resources spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Romania with politicians, experts, journalists and advertising and PR agencies who supported the mining project.
USR Senator’s response comes following an article published in the online edition of the ‘Adevarul’ newspaper signed by an adviser with a ministry, claiming that the submission of the Rosia Montana file to UNESCO by former Minister of Culture Corina Suteu would affect Romania’s chances at the arbitration in Washington, where Gabriel Resources is demanding USD 4.4 billion in damages.
Rosia Montana Community to stage protests in Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, charges Gov’t of wanting to reach deal with Gabriel Resources
The Rosia Montana Community has announced it will stage a protest in Piata Victoriei in Bucharest, in Cluj and Iasi on Friday, September 1, following the statements of PM Mihai Tudose.
“RM Community urgently asks Prime Minister Tudose not to allow the destruction of Rosia Montana by ending the arbitration with Gabriel Resources. A compromise between the two parties in dispute would result in a lawful decision in Romania and could lead to the withdrawal of the nomination file on the UNESCO list and to granting endorsements to start exploitations,” Alburnus Maior association said in a statement released to HotNews.ro.
The protests are due in Bucharest, Cluj and other cities around the country. “Four years after the protests in 2013 we will get to the streets again to firmly protest against the Tudose cabinet attempt to take away all we have won in these years for Rosia Montana and in the fight against corruption,” the release reads.
The association says a ‘compromise with Gabriel Resources is being sought’ in order to end the arbitration, which is close to reach a new stage ‘of important disclosures’: the Court in Washington will release the entire complaint of the company against the Romanian state. The memoire includes the reasons for which the Canadian company is requesting damages. The publication will take place if no compromise is reached between the Romanian state and Gabriel Resources.
The association claims that “fear of the company’s memoire turning public seems to terrify the few politicians, who supported the mining project” and the reactions lately show the potential for disaster of the memoire and “it explains the haste with which the politicians want to end the arbitrage.”
“Tudose’s statements are actually fantastic. How can one compare the Roman galleries and the archaeological inheritance, unique in the world, with a dragon-fly? Is that all they can do? We convey to Tudose the same issues we conveyed to Ponta, Basescu, Tariceanu and all those who wanted to destroy our community: we would not desert our homes, our land to make room for the cyanides and for you to become richer!” President of Alburnus Maior association, Eugen David, said in the release.