Former Justice Minister Criticizes Government for Failing to Implement EU Environmental Directive and Lenient Penalties for Environmental Crimes, While PM Highlights Good Tourist Season After Waste Meeting in Gospić
After Prime Minister Andrej Plenković held a meeting of the inner cabinet and the parliamentary majority on August 11 regarding the pressing waste scandal in Gospić, his address to the media drew sharp criticism from former Justice Minister Vesna Škare Ožbolt. She told Dnevno.hr that instead of downplaying the issue, the government must urgently begin implementing European environmental protection measures.
Škare Ožbolt reminded that Croatia received an official warning from Brussels in mid-July precisely for failing to apply the Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law. "I believe the government must seriously get to work in terms of adopting measures that already exist at the EU level, which has already warned it this summer for not implementing measures and not applying the European directive," she stated.
The former minister particularly highlighted the significant gap between Croatian penalties and what the European directive prescribes. "The directive requires at least five years in prison for more serious offenses and ten years for qualified ones. What penalties do we have? Two years! So, two years, not at least five," emphasized Škare Ožbolt.
She cited Italy and Austria as examples of good practice. "For instance, the Italians have prescribed fifteen years in prison for such offenses. They have also stipulated that those responsible for pollution must remediate it at their own expense. The Austrians have a cadastre of contaminated land-they keep records of which land is polluted. And what do we have? Nothing," she said.
Beyond legislative shortcomings, Škare Ožbolt also criticized the PM's remarks in which, amid the environmental crisis discussion, he shifted focus to the success of the tourist season. After the meeting with coalition partners, Plenković stated: "What is more than clear is that the tourist season throughout this year looks very good, and July data are better. The overall tourist season will be even better than last year's."
The former minister responded: "Well, I don't see the season as that brilliant. I'm at the seaside now. We are very expensive and of poor quality. This is a huge problem that keeps recurring. People react terribly, just terribly. Plenković clearly has no real picture of the season. When you divert the topic, you divert it to something successful, and I'm not sure how much this year's tourist season is that."
After the meeting, PM Plenković posted key messages from the coalition gathering on his Twitter profile. "We held a meeting of the inner cabinet and the coalition regarding the waste situation in Gospić in Lika-Senj County. The main messages are, the criminal process is underway, remediation is accelerating, and the coalition is stable, with everyone's desire to impose the harshest sanctions on the perpetrators of these criminal offenses," he wrote.
