Inside a hydropower plant

++ License provided because of the Macedonian Ministry of Environment had been illegal ++ Violation of nationwide ecological legislation ++ Nature conservationists call upon financier EBRD to withdraw from project “Boskov Many” immediately ++

According to the state declaration because of the Macedonian administrative judge, plans the big hydropower task Boskov Most in the Macedonian Mavrovo National Park are without any appropriate basis. “With this, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is more than overdue to definitively withdraw its financing regarding the project “, demands Gabriel Schwaderer, CEO of EuroNatur Foundation.

The administrative judge has suffered a problem recorded because of the Macedonian environmental organisation forward 21/42 and has now stated the licence the construction regarding the hydropower project void. The Macedonian Ministry of Environment had approved the licence in 2012 based on an utterly inadequate and incomplete environmental influence assessment and has consequently violated existing national environmental law. A sound assessment of ecological effects had been never ever carried out. “The building of hydropower projects in the Mavrovo National Park appears in stark comparison to the goals of security. We anticipate that the courtroom decision will finally lead to the ultimate end regarding the project Boskov Many. This is surprise success for people, for Mavrovo National Park and also for the environmental motion in Macedonia“, claims Aleksandra Bujaroska of Front 21/42, who took the outcome to court.

“This appropriate success in Macedonia provides a cure for various other tasks into the Balkans, since most of the 2, 700 hydropower flowers projected between Slovenia and Albania are now being hurried through with no trustworthy ecological assessment”, states Ulrich Eichlemann from Riverwatch and coordinator for the “Save the Blue Heart of European countries” campaign.