Around 25 Slovak NGOs have initiated a collective amendment against the draft law on extraordinary measures for strategic investments and the construction of The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) in Slovakia, saying it goes against EU directives for nature protection.
They consider the draft “undemocratic and unconstitutional” and request its withdrawal and revision.
“It contains several provisions and institutions that go far beyond the scope of the TEN-T directive, are in no way related to transposition, and even contradict the principles that the directive declares in its introductory provisions,” the NGOs write.
They argue that if the government decides that an investment will be viewed as “strategic”, this status would have unlimited validity.
Thus, it could interfere indefinitely with the property rights of ordinary people in the affected area, harm the environment, or be inconsistent with Slovakia’s long-term commitments to climate protection and biodiversity.
The EU Commission recommends to the member states to make permitting processes more effective regarding trans-European transport network projects as part of the transposition of the TEN-T Directive.
The aim is to accelerate the construction of missing road and rail sections through priority projects to ensure smooth cross-border connections between EU countries and essential transport corridors.
At the same time, the EU Commission warns that this directive should not affect, among other things, urban or regional planning, public procurement procedures and strategic environmental assessment.
According to the Transport Ministry, the proposed law will help citizens, entrepreneurs, municipalities and the state administration. “We have tried to include all the amendments and interests in the changes,” said Transport Minister Jozef Ráž.
He admitted that “a full consensus has not been reached” with every stakeholder and plans to work with all the statements in the interdepartmental commenting procedure.
However, the involvement of the public and experts in creating the law is complicated because the ministry has given only seven days for amendments instead of the usual 15 working days.
(Irena Jenčová, Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)
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Source: euractiv.com
