Trgovska Gora: Vipotnik Details Legal Fight on Waste Site

The legal team of Republika Srpska is looking for ways to stop Croatia’s radioactive waste site on Trgovska Gora. On October 26, Minister Bojan Vipotnik told the Srna news agency what that legal fight includes, from complaints over violations of international conventions to possible proceedings before international courts. The case concerns a direct neighbor, because the site lies right on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Vipotnik, Republika Srpska’s minister for spatial planning, construction and ecology, said the entity has scientific, expert and legal arguments. The goal, he said, is to force Croatia to look for another location.

What does Croatia plan at Cerkezovac?

Croatia plans to store radioactive waste from the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant, along with existing institutional waste, at the Cerkezovac site on Trgovska Gora, in the municipality of Dvor. The facility would stand right next to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Vipotnik wants to stop the plan to build the site on the border itself.

What is the legal team doing?

According to Vipotnik, the team has been reinforced by experts from the Paris law firm “Labord” and works on the case every day. He described it this way:

All segments of environmental protection have been processed and covered by research, and the legal team, reinforced by experts from the law firm “Labord” in Paris, works daily on finding every model of legal protection. That includes actions from filing complaints for violations of international conventions to possible proceedings before international courts.

The statement makes clear that proceedings before international courts are so far only a possibility, not a filed lawsuit. The ministry, he added, collects data on Trgovska Gora every day so that Republika Srpska has complete and up-to-date arguments.

Environmental impact study: waiting for November

Croatia has announced that in November it will deliver to Republika Srpska, and to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a potentially affected country, the Environmental Impact Study for the so-called radioactive waste management center. Vipotnik says there is still no official confirmation of that, but that it does not change how prepared the side is:

Although we still have no official confirmation that Croatia will, in November, as it announced, deliver to Republika Srpska, that is, to BiH, as a potentially affected country, the Environmental Impact Study for the construction of the so-called radioactive waste management center on Trgovska Gora, our expert team is fully ready.

The statement does not mention any reaction from the Croatian side to these claims.

Illegal waste imports and the Croatian public

Vipotnik said it is encouraging that the Croatian public has also begun to pay more attention to the “Trgovska Gora” case. He linked it to the illegal import of hazardous waste into Croatia, which came to light in that country, though the statement gives no details about it. In his words, only that affair brought the story of Cerkezovac closer to the public:

It took the story of the illegal import of hazardous waste into Croatia to come out, and only then did the story of storing nuclear waste at Cerkezovac, on the border with a neighboring country that opposes it, reach the widest public in Croatia.

The next date is November, when Croatia, by its own announcement, is due to deliver the study, and Vipotnik says the Republika Srpska team is ready for it.