The upheaval of an entire society and the anguish of the inhabitants, which through their elected representatives was reflected in the recent Municipal Council of the Municipality of Serbia, can not leave any institutional factor indifferent.
The issue of the construction of a multitude of small Photovoltaics in an area that is a forest lung on the outskirts of the Local Communities of Messiana of Vathilakos of Roditi and Oinoi raises intense concerns for the anarchic and without Plan development of RES in our Region.
Without Spatial Planning, which under the responsibility of the Government and the Regional Authority has not preceded, without land uses, to obey a development plan that will safely lead the Region to the post-lignite era, we go blind.
However, what is happening today in "Mana Nero" reveals another aspect of this anarchy without a plan of Violent Transition.
She's circumvention of the legislation by a top state official, the Coordinator of Decentralized Administration, in order to serve a specific investor.
At the same time it raises intense concerns and raises important issues that await response, the investment cooperation of both the Mayor of Kozani and the elected leaders of the Municipalities of Kozani with the said Investor, for the reasons we will analyze below.
If we summarize what has so far seen the light of day, it turns out that:
The company's RES investments, involved in "Mana Nero", with its derivative corporate schemes, amount to σύνολο 340MW in the whole Region, and are expected to have a turnover of € 25-30m per year.
Only from the Photovoltaics in the area of Kozani it seems that ~ 4,000 acres of land have been committed.
From the published data, still arises, that the favored company had meanwhile hired one of the Coordinator's three daughters, even giving it a staff position.
Even worse than the reports it appears that the partner of the favored company took over as Administrator of the three Companies that in the meantime were founded by the three subsidiaries and the nephew of the Coordinator.
The favored private businessman, as Administrator of the subsidiaries he submitted six investment proposals (two for each daughter) concerning the creation of six Photovoltaics 500kw each in the area "MANA NEROU". The approvals were given with the father's signatures!
The cost of construction of 6 of these investments amounts to approximately ~ 1.5m € and the question reasonably arises, how can a civil servant cover this even with a high salary;
Obviously it is legitimate to seek to start a business, for the benefit of his family, as long as he does not use his state capacity and position for this purpose.
Serving and promoting private interests, when concealing rewards and personal services as seems to be the case here, it makes sense to create second thoughts .
In fact, when the Coordinator to serve the interests of the specific private company, for so many investments, when it bypasses the strong disagreement of the local communities and when what the legislation stipulates then there is definitely an issue, moral order but also the issue of compliance with legality
In our view, there are four points that raise issues of legitimacy
1The The project seems to have received intervention approvals even on an area that was previously characterized as a forest
2The The area in the area "MANA NEROU" ~ 2,000 acres, as a public area should be put out to open auction on the one hand to determine the best price for the public and on the other hand in order not to circumvent healthy competition
3The The division that took place, although it concerns many small investors, has an accelerator, which is the company in question, which initiates the process.. However, fragmentation must not bypass the more complex environmental permitting process, which, if implemented, would allow the overall assessment of the cumulative consequences and impacts of the whole single project. Consequently, if the approx 200 discharge decisions and Standard Environmental Commitment decisions, for the licensing of PV power of about 100MW were presented as a single project, the process of approving environmental conditions should be followed by submitting an environmental impact study and to observe the process of publication of the EIA and the formulation of an opinion by the Regional Council, the Municipal Council and the citizens.
4The The division exempts the private investor from the payment of the RES Fee 3% which would pay off in return to the local community if the project were unified.
Issue, in addition to local and central media, arrived in Parliament with a Question submitted by members of the Movement for Change and the answers that will be given will probably shed light on the questions that are.
Also issues of licensing of RES projects of the specific Company were also dealt with by the Regional Council in the context of the opinion on the Environmental Terms. 17 RES investment proposals ~ 300MW.
The intensity of this activity, around the area of Kozani, led the Regional Council to unanimously take a negative decision on the licensing of RES projects until a clear spatial framework with specific land uses emerges.
However, the issue of dozens of exemptions from environmental licensing, in the MANA NEROU area of the Municipality of Serbia, raises reasonable questions which we will ask the Regional Council with our Question that will follow.
From our side we will stand by the residents in any action that will ensure the valuable natural resources of the place and their interests, because very simply p"Mana Nero" is tested by our society and its institutions.
Georgia Zempiliadou
Regional Councilor
Head of the "ELPIDA" Association
