European Commission
Directorate General for Environment
To: CALLEJA CRESPO Daniel – Director-General
PLANAS HERRERA Luis – Policy Assistant to the Director-General
PAUWELS Natalie – Policy Assistant to the Director-General
Subject: NGO Letter regarding new developments on Tara River in Montenegro
Dear Mr. Callleja Crespo, Mr. Planas Herrera and Ms. Pauwels,
We would like to draw your attention to new developments regarding environmentally threatening events in the area of the Tara River Basin caused by construction of Bar – Boljare Highway.
As you are aware, due to its biodiversity value and the well-known water quality, Tara river enjoys several categories of protection. Together with Durmitor, it was proclaimed as UNESCO world heritage. In addition, due to the synergy of man and nature, it deserves the status of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Strategic Impact Assessment at Environment is stating that the Spatial Plan for Bar Boljare Highway is violating Article 6 of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage because construction of the highway is planned through the protected area. That Article obliges Montenegro not to take any deliberate measures which are, directly or indirectly, damage the natural heritage.
Months after the first reactions of NGOs dealing with the environment, we are still witnessing to excessive construction works with significant negative effects at the biodiversity of the River Tara.
New drone footage is showing that CRBC (Chinese Construction Company) has established a new landfill where construction waste, excavated from future motorway tunnels is deposed on agriculture land with no permits or conducted environment impact assessments. On the other side, the current Environmental Impact Assessment is not recognizing these sites as designated locations for establishing new landfills, not even temporary ones.
Latest drone footage is available at these links:
Particularly worrying is the fact that this latest development is happening after the European Parliament Resolution on Montenegro from November 2018, recognizing this problem and suggesting Government of Montenegro to stop all activities on dumping the construction waste on riverbeds. This is happening also after latest European Commission Report on Montenegro Progress in EU Accession Process, published in May this year in which EC is also recognizing the issue of motorway construction impact to environment and river Tara in particular.
Finally, the latest UNESCO report on Montenegro is confirming that river Tara is devastated and that certain amount of that devastation will remain to exist despite the future implementation of remediation measures.
All of this is quite worrying for us, especially to see with what amount of negligence the Government of Montenegro is treating the environment, but also to learn that it has altogether disregarded very strong and clear messages from EU and other respectable institutions on this matter.
In addition to that, very little has changed in overall transparency of motorway construction project. All monitoring reports developed by a variety of institutions, all project documents showing more details about the exact route of the highway through the protected zone, basic information about financial arrangements and payments, and many other documents are still declared as state secret. In addition, all experts engaged by the government in monitoring this project are required to protect all obtained information as business secrets.
*We would like to invite you to add your contribution and restate these concerns directly with the Government of Montenegro, to get more information about the process of highway construction. We would appreciate any other support you can provide within your institutional competence that would help the protection of the Tara River. *
For any further information please feel free to contact us.
Respectfully on behalf of the NGOs:
- The Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector,
- NGO “Naša Akcija”,
- Ecological Movement “OZON”,
- NGO Breznica,
- NGO “Sjeverna zemlja”,
- NGO Green Home,
- Center for Research and Protection of Birds – CZIP,
- Montenegrin Association of Ecologists
