The Bucharest Court rejected Greenpeace’s action to block the Neptun Deep project in the trial court, and the NGO must pay 80,000 lei to the project owners Romgaz and OMV Petrom, announced Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja.
In a separate statement, Greenpace claims that it may not appeal. “We believe that our arguments are pertinent, so we will decide whether or not to appeal against the solution after we see the arguments in the Bucharest Court’s sentence,” the environmental activists say.
In the ME statement, the environmental organization is accused, veiledly, of sabotage of Romania’s national economy. Romanian state owns almost 20.7% of OMV Petrom directly and about 70% of Romgaz.
“We said from the very beginning that we have no emotions that justice will be done. And so it was. Romania cannot allow projects essential for our energy security to be sabotaged, as they have been in recent decades. I sincerely congratulate the Romgaz, OMV teams and colleagues from the Ministry of Energy for this fight waged with professionalism and determination. Neptun Deep is an essential project not only for Romania, but also for the entire region, ensuring cheap and abundant Romanian gas for Romanians, our brothers across the Prut and all our neighbors, at a fair price.”
The environmental NGO must pay compensation of only 16,000 euros, although the companies had requested a sum of 250,000 euros.
“The judiciary has defended Romania’s interests against repeated attempts by the NGO Greenpeace to block the vital Neptun Deep project. The Bucharest Court dismissed Greenpeace’s action on the merits, and the NGO must now pay 80,000 lei to the developers Romgaz and OMV Petrom. This ruling confirms once again that many of the actions of this kind initiated against Romania’s strategic projects are either unfounded or inadmissible. These lawsuits cost us time, money and major opportunities for national development and security. Romania has won today not just a lawsuit, but an important battle for our strategic interests. It is inadmissible that the limited resources of the Romanian state are dedicated to constantly combating unfounded legal actions, while Greenpeace spends hundreds of thousands of lei on lawyers to initiate serial lawsuits,” Burduja argued.
Greenpeace Romania has taken OMV Petrom, Romgaz, Tuzla City Hall and Local Council, Dobrogea – Litoral Water Basin Administration and Grigore Antipa National Institute for Marine Research and Development to court for irregularities in the approval processes and lack of transparency regarding crucial data regarding the toxic substances that will be discharged into the Black Sea.
