Urgently Form an Expert And Legal Team That Will Represent The Interests of Bih in The Case of Trgovska Gora

Today, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Staša Košarac, organized an urgent video conference to discuss Croatia's intention to build a radioactive and nuclear waste disposal site at Trgovska gora, near the border with BiH.

The video conference was attended by the Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska Srebrenka Golić, Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism Edita Đapo, members of the parliamentary group "Green Club" Saša Magazinović and Jasmin Emrić, as well as the Mayor of Novi Grad Miroslav Drljača.

Participants in today's video conference found that the decision of the Croatian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy to hand over the location of the former military warehouse Čerkezovac for the Fund for Financing the Decommissioning and Disposal of Radioactive Waste at the Krško Nuclear Power Plant testifies clear intention of the neighboring authorities not to give up the disputable landfill construction site near the border with BiH.

Minister Košarac informed his interlocutors about the meetings he had on this topic with the Croatian Ambassador to BiH, Ivan Sabolić and the Croatian relevant Minister Tomislav Ćorić.

During the video conference, it was pointed out that the relevant institutions at all levels of government in BiH have a unanimous position on the unacceptability of radioactive waste disposal near the border, as it would endanger the health of 250,000 inhabitants in 13 municipalities in the Una River Basin as well as the environment. It was also warned that this is a serious security problem, given that it is a very seismic area.

At the videoconference it was concluded that the BiH Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations will provide comprehensive information to the BiH Council of Ministers in the next few days, requesting that a coordination team and an expert and legal group be established through institutional action to address this open bilateral issue with Croatia, as well as that in each projection of the budget of BiH institutions funds are planned for the work of the mentioned groups. It was also concluded that it is necessary for all competent institutions to intensify diplomatic activities in order to prevent Croatia from determining the location in question as final for the storage of radioactive waste.