ZAGREB, February 3, 2018 – Social Democrat MP Željko Jovanović told reporters in Rijeka on Saturday that the planned adoption of a law on the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Omišalj on the island of Krk, as announced by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, would be contrary to the Constitution and the European Charter of Local Self-Government, as well as decisions by Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Omišalj municipality and the will of local residents.
Jovanović said that the county and the municipalities of Krk and Omišalj were not against an LNG terminal, but that they expected it to be exclusively an on-shore terminal.
“Plenković says that ‘Lex LNG’ will facilitate the project in terms of the operating licence, property-rights relations and the environmental impact study. Those are the three last protection mechanisms of democratic procedure and the rule of law and that law will derogate them,” said Jovanović, adding that the project would eliminate market competition and favour foreign investors while “local residents’ land will be expropriated and they will be given a floating LNG terminal in return, regardless of whether it is harmful to the environment or not.”
The MP said that PM Plenković, Economy Minister Martina Dalić and other relevant ministers should first see to it that the existing units of the DINA polyethylene producer at Omišalj were dismantled, that the thermal power plant at Urinj was converted to run on natural gas and that care was taken of local tourism. “Once that is done, we will believe that various lobbies’ private interests are not hiding behind the term Croatia’s strategic interests.”
Commenting on the government’s cancelling the road toll for the Sveti Ilija tunnel, connecting the Imotski area and the Makarska Riviera in southern Croatia, Jovanović said that the government should do the same and cancel the road toll for the Krk bridge, the Učka tunnel and parts of the Rijeka-Zagreb highway, notably those passing through the mountainous region of Gorski Kotar.
