MANS is pleased that the EP recognized the importance of monitoring the situation at the construction site of the Bar-Boljare highway, sections from Podgorica to Kolašin, especially after the Resolution on the progress of Montenegro pointed to the need for timely and accurate information on the impact of the construction of the highway on the river, on which MANS has been insisting for several months.
The Resolution also emphasized the need to suspend all waste disposal activities and the changes in the riverbed in accordance with Montenegro’s obligations regarding the preservation of areas under special national and international protection.
In its Resolution on Montenegro, the European Parliament once again criticized the Government regarding the highway project and reminded of the responsibilities that Montenegro assumed by signing international agreements when it comes to protecting the Tara River as a specially protected area.
By this, European MPs sent a clear message to the Montenegrin authorities – that Tara, which is on the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves, is a European river, and that it will not allow its further devastation, as MANS has been pointing out since October, when it published the first footage from the site on Tara.
The footage made in October showed that the Tara riverbed on a section slightly longer than 5km, in the part between Mateševo and Jabuka, is unrecognizable and degraded, with a displaced riverbed, changed structure of the bottom and the coast with destroyed biodiversity and landscape.
New footage from November showed that CRBC on both banks of Tara deposited huge quantities of construction waste from nearby construction sites, while on the site next to the camp Jabuka it formed the entire mountain of land and gravel.
It also shows that CRBC discharges waste water directly into the stream and continues thus untreated into the Tara River.
Because of this, MANS filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office against the competent authorities, and with the group of NGOs, asked the European Commission for help.
It is obvious that the Prime Minister Duško Marković and the Minister of Sustainable Development Pavle Radulović were unable to convince European MPs to “believe their words, not their own eyes” and that Tara, after building a section of the highway that will cost citizens more than a billion Euros, will be “as it was”.
By ignoring this problem and not understanding the role of civil society, Marković and Radulović bring disgrace to Montenegro and it is more than sad that foreigners must warn us to protect what is ours.
We believe that it is high time for the Government of Montenegro to publish all relevant documentation on the highway in order to know its precise route and potential impact on protected areas.
We also expect that the EU institutions will continue to closely monitor the Government’s behavior when it comes to the project of the highway, and insist on the legality and transparency of the entire process.
Dejan Milovac,
Director of the MANS Investigative Centre
