Soros Foundation Romania expresses its concern regarding the statement of the appointed minister of Economy, Trade and Business Environment, mister Adriean Videanu on the Rosia Montana mining project’s starting off as one of the primary part of the governance program to be proposed to the Romanian Parliament.

The complete neglect of the various questionable signs surrounding the Rosia Montana project and advancing an outcome in the benefit of a private company, whose project is still in the Technical Analysis Committee of The Romanian Ministry of Environment, show us that we are beyond any aspect regarding the public interest.

 

Soros Foundation hopes that the Romanian Parliament will seize the opportunity shown by the hearing of the new cabinet Emil Boc’s appointed ministers and by the plenum debate within in order to install the principles of transparency, legality and the public interest primacy in the analysis and approval process of this contentious mining project.

We recall some of the problems arisen over the last few years by the organizations of the civil society concerning the Rosia Montana project, issues that still remain without an official response from the authorities.

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Lack of transparency

In several occasions, Soros Foundation has drowned the attention on the declassification of the Rosia Montana exploitation license issued by the National Agency of Mineral Resources. Despite all of the Prime-Minister’s statements concerning the abortion of contracts’ classification procedure during his mandate (“During my mandate we will not experience again this kind of classified documents”), despite President Traian Basescu’s statements on the demand of reforming and state apparatus’ responsibility to work on behalf of the citizen, despite of the NAMR lost lawsuits in similar cases of abusive classified contracts (details on the decision taken into the case that opposed Romanian Academic Society and NAMR can be accessed here), the license contract and the additional documents remain classified.

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Doubtful economic opportunity of the project

Soros Foundation notice that no debate over the financial benefit of the Romanian state regarding the golden resources in the area can be taken into account without knowing all the contract license provisions, which allow an accurate assessment of the costs and benefits due to the Romanian state.

Without knowing all these specifications, using any argument to advance a hypothetical advantage of the Romanian state into the mining project remains a merely speculation or an attempt to partisan misleading.

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Abandonment of the cultural heritage of the area

Soros Foundation ascertained that the authorities reject systematically to decline the mere rhetoric on the preservation of the Rosia Montana cultural heritage.

The heritage importance has been highlighted by the protest of 1030 members of national and international academic and scientific community and by various resolutions of ICOMOS-International Council on Monuments and Sites, the UNESCO official consultant (more details can be found on the Soros Foundation webpage).

Also, the report of the Presidential Commission on the Built Patrimony, Historical and Natural Sites in Romania mentions the protecting of the Rosia Montana area among the priorities of any policy in the field of heritage protection (the complete document of the Presidential Committee can be consulted here). In this context, we have received the declaration of Mr. President Traian Băsescu, made at the launch of the report as an engagement for sustainable policies concerning the protection of the cultural heritage.

“The national patrimony means historical heritage, memory, identity. Its protection and conservation represents a national priority and must be the object of a coherent and sustained national policy…I will officially transmit to the Government and to the Parliament this Report to be taken into account as the basis for law proposals and, moreover, as the basis for an inter-institutional cooperation platform absolutely necessary to the protection and conservation of the national patrimony.” (the complete declaration of the President of Romania can be consulted here).

Unfortunately this document produced no result on the situation of the Rosia Montana heritage, which still stands the risk to be irreversibly compromised in the case of an open - pit exploitation (foreseen to be one of the biggest in Europe).

The Soros Foundation Romania makes an appeal to the members of the Romanian Parliament to take into consideration the problems above mentioned, as well as other takings of stand and protests on the Rosia Montana topic, made by various NGOs, together with the unequivocal position of the Romanian Academy (the complete declaration can be read here). In its position of censor of the governmental activity, it is the role of the Romanian Parliament to ensure the transparency and the responsibility of the state institutions and to act to the interest of the Romanian citizens.