Kosor Calls on Milanović: Time for a Session
Following USKOK's findings on 37,000 tons of hazardous waste in Gospić, the former prime minister demands an urgent political response and the convening of an extraordinary session of Parliament.
Following USKOK's findings on 37,000 tons of hazardous waste in Gospić, the former prime minister demands an urgent political response and the convening of an extraordinary session of Parliament.
Former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor has sharply reacted to the illegal waste dumping affair in Lika, calling on President Zoran Milanović to use his constitutional powers and request an urgent government session or an extraordinary session of Parliament. Her message came after USKOK released its findings and an addendum to the environmental expert assessment for the industrial complex at 50 Bilajska Street in Gospić.
"Incidentally, the President of the Republic can also request a session of the Croatian Government and attend it if he deems a topic to be of national importance. He can also request an extraordinary session of Parliament. Now is the time for him to do so and for overpaid ministers and MPs to account for themselves. Poisoned Lika is crying out," Kosor said, as reported by Nacional Plus.
According to the initial expert findings, the disputed site in Lika contains approximately 37,000 tons of mixed technogenic waste. Traces of processing of electrical and electronic devices, medical waste, plastics, and construction and mineral materials were found. Representative tests recorded the hazardous property HP14, ecotoxicity, with one sample exceeding the limit by approximately tenfold.
This information further increases pressure on the institutions responsible for urgently resolving the issue of disposal and remediation. The case is no longer just a local issue for Gospić and Lika but a matter of serious public and national interest.
President Zoran Milanović had earlier warned about the problem, demanding urgent action from the Government. "The illegal, indeed criminal, dumping of hazardous waste in Lika, near Gospić, must begin to be urgently remediated. The Croatian Government can no longer justify itself with procedures and public tenders, as it is currently doing, because people's health is undoubtedly at risk and there is a threat of permanent environmental contamination," Milanović stated.
The competent institutions now face a much greater task, to prove that concern for human health and nature is not a matter of political games, procedures, and evasion of responsibility, but an urgent duty of the state.
