May 10, 2024
NEWS

Romania Wins Rosia Montana Case: No Compensation Due

Claudio Ctin06 mins
Romania Wins Rosia Montana Case: No Compensation Due

The Romanian state will not pay any compensation to Gabriel Resources in the Roșia Montană case. This is the verdict communicated Friday evening to the Government of Romania by the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The verdict is surprising, given that in recent weeks both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have stated that Romania expects to lose the case and have suggested that the compensation that the Romanian state would pay amounts to 2 billion euros.

The decision – final and enforceable – comes at the end of nearly nine years of litigation. Romania was represented in this process by the Romanian law firm Leaua Damcali Deaconu Paunescu – LDDP and the Swiss firm LALIVE SA.

Romania is to recover 1.4 million dollars in court costs.

In 2013, tens of thousands of people took to the streets and protested for three weeks against the exploitation of gold in Roșia Montană, which would have destroyed the area. In several cities in the country, including Bucharest, but also abroad, protest actions were organized against the legislative project adopted by the Ponta Government, which was then sent to the Parliament in order to exploit gold in Roșia Montană.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu reacted, on Friday evening, to the announcement that Romania has won the case at the arbitration court in Washington.
“We won the Roșia Montana case!! We fought for Romania because it was unfair that every employee and pensioner of this country should be penalized for the villainy of some anti-Romanians! Thank you to the team of lawyers who represented Romania with professionalism, honor and honor! Romanians must not suffer because of the decisions of prime ministers who put personal interests above national interests! I didn’t accept robbery in the case of anti-Covid vaccines, I didn’t do it now either! Well done, Romania!” wrote Prime Minister Ciolacu on Facebook.
Romania wants the full publication of the arbitral award. Therefore, if the arbitration tribunal will draft the arbitral award without referring to the confidential information in its possession, then the arbitral award will become public in its entirety and will be published on the website of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (https:/ /icsid.worldbank.org).
In June 2017, the Canadian company, the majority shareholder Roșia Montană Gold Corporation, summoned Romania to court at a World Bank Tribunal, where it claimed losses of billions of dollars because the Government in Bucharest decided not to approve the exploitation of the gold mine Rosia Montana.
According to Gabriel Resources, 300 tons of gold and 1,600 tons of silver can be extracted from the Roşia Montană deposit. Their value was, in 2013, estimated at over 16 billion dollars. However, the method of extracting the gold was controversial, namely through cyanides.

Environmental organizations claimed that the procedure is harmful for the environment, but also for the residents of the area. In addition, they drew attention to the fact that the expansion of the mine will destroy part of the old Roman galleries, as well as four mountain peaks.

The UNESCO Cultural Heritage Committee decided, in July 2021, to register the Roșia Montană site in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and in the World Heritage in Danger, which means stopping any mining project.

The government spokesman, Mihai Constantin, stated, a few days ago, that the total updated value of the compensation requested by the companies Gabriel Resources Ltd. and Gabriel Resources (Jersey) in the file opened against Romania, related to the gold mining project from Roşia Montană could have had a maximum threshold of 6.7 billion dollars.

The post Romania Wins Rosia Montana Case: No Compensation Due appeared first on The Romania Journal.

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