PODGORICA (10 February 2011) – MANS today has called on the Montenegrin Prime Minister Igor Lukšić to initiate a review of the long-term lease for the Valdanos coastal strip that was granted to the British company Cubus Lux. There are sufficient grounds to suspect that the deal will be detrimental to the country and have major negative consequences on the entire site.
There are a range of indicators suggesting that the whole process relating to the Valdonos deal is controversial, starting with the spatial planning documentation, through to the environmental protection measures and up to the selection of the lessee.
The scope of the planned construction on Valdanos – which has already been declared a naturally protected area for its century old olive trees – can be gauged from the fact that the state has already given the green-light for the lessee to build three hotels and 100 villas for sale. Such plans would “enrich” the Valdanos bay with some 111,000 m2 worth of cement and steel.
Given that we’re talking about a locale that represents a unique natural treasure, a development that is focused on preparing 100 villas for the market, illustrates the degree to which the government is still beholden to a flawed policy emphasizing the building of apartments on the coast instead of developing actual tourism capacities.
It’s puzzling to hear the planners speak about the anticipated “transplantation” of centuries old olive trees and of “expanding” the Valdanos beach by some 60m. They are showing an irresponsible attitude in talking about plans like the dredging up of sand and gravel from the seabed, necessary for “expanding” the beach, even though this has never been done in Montenegro. There is no clear plan as to how this type of operation could be carried out and what its negative consequences will be on the natural environment of the locale.
Valdanos, one of the most beautiful jewels of the Montenegrin coast, is thus facing the danger of becoming irreversibly destroyed. The extent of the devastation could reach the proportions of what we’ve already seen on the Zavala peninsula – where flats for the market were built instead of tourism facilities.
Similarly the decision to lease Valdanos to Cubus Lux is also controversial since the firms business history is extremely problematic. According to the tender the future lessee was to have 100 million euros in revenues or at least that much capital under management. From the available data on the company’s website it is possible to conclude that its revenues are symbolic and that the firm has been operating at a loss in recent years. It’s therefore unclear what the privatization council and the government were looking at when they gave a ‘green light’ to this deal.
The suspicions that Cubus Lux lacks the financial capacity to execute this project are further confirmed by the fact that local banks in Montenegro are being approached to secure funds for the construction of a tourism complex on Valdanos.
At the same time, the deal ignores the fact that the Valdanos area is overburdened with restitution claims, with many cases already having reached the European Court for Human Rights in Strasburg. This raises the question as to whether or not Montenegro’s tax-payers will have to pay the price of compensation claims lodged by former owners, thus bearing the cost of someone else’s bad decisions.
In order to remove all the uncertainties around this project, MANS is calling on the government to make the entire process transparent and release on its website the contractual documentation related to the leasing of Valdanos. Likewise, we call on Prime Minister Lukšić to review the decisions made by former Prime Minister Milo Đukanović’s cabinet in relation to Valdanos – decisions that could have lasting negative effects on state interests.
Dejan Milovac
Deputy Executive Director
Urban Development Programme Director
