The High Administrative Court of North Macedonia should adopt a decision as soon as possible and finally close the “Ilovica-Shtuka Mine” case, plead the environmentalists from the southeastern part of the country. After the Administrative Court’s decision was announced in March this year, that the Euromax Resources company’s appeal is rejected and confirmed the termination of the concession, the environmentalists from Novo Selo, Bosilovo and Strumica have been waiting for a confirmation from the High Administrative Court. They plead the court to not delay the decision about the closure of the case and say that they will not back off from their mission to prevent opening a mine in their area.
“The last court ruling verdict in the whole process, which was marked by a number of verdicts from various instances, is crystal clear regarding the explanation why Euromax Resources’ concession agreement has to be terminated. It contains all the arguments about the violations of the agreement and the obligations that the concessionaire has failed to meet. The reasons are stated very accurately and precisely with the clear quoting of all applicable law articles. That is why we are asking why the decision has been delayed for so long. We plead to avoid further delaying the case and bring it to the closure”, Zdrava Dolina (Healthy Valley) NGO’s activists urge. They add that verdicts such as this one, which clearly present the evidence, do renew the trust in the juidiciary and in the possibility of seeing court rulings that are in accordance with the law.
The Administrative Court’s verdict was adopted in October last year and it was initially announced toward the end of last year in the Canadian media. Macedonian public wasn’t able to see it until March this year, when it was published on the Courts Portal. In the meantime, Euromax Resources lodged a complaint to the High Administrative Court to dispute this decision.
In December last year, the people from the Southeast staged a protest in front of the High Administrative Court appealing for the final ruling that will close this case. Even then, as well as now, the environmentalists stressed that the case is clear and it is futile to continue with the court hearings, since the concessionaire Euromax Resources hasn’t met 7 out of 9 obligations that the concession agreement stipulates and which should have been met by 2017.
“As before, we remain firm in our opinion, which has remained unchanged for years, and which was confirmed by the court as undisputed facts. Time has shown that we were right in everything we claimed, because the truth is our weapon and our opinions and questions were expressed with integrity, objectivity and backed by documents. This is why we have pleaded to the High Administrative Court to finally do its job, since the truth has risen to the surface and everyone can see it. If someone tries to manipulate it and to defend something that has no foundation to be defended, then it will face floods of people protesting on the streets, fields and mountains,” announced Healthy Valley on their social network profiles.
This case was already once at the High Administrative Court, in July last year when this court decided to abolish the rulingn by the Administrative Court that rejected Euromax Resources’ appeal about the terminated concession. Then, the High Administrative Court ruled that there should be a retrial of the case at the Administrative Court.
