Opposition parties in the Croatian parliament led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Thursday lashed out against the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal Bill which should pave the way for the construction of an LNG terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, saying it was environmentally unacceptable and unprofitable.

Presenting the bill to parliament, a senior official at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ivo Milatic, said that the bill aimed to define the infrastructure of the LNG terminal, which he said was of strategic interest to Croatia, as well as to maintain the security of natural gas supply and regulate the award of concessions for the use of the maritime domain. He added that concession fees for the use of the maritime domain would be paid to local government.

The annual concession fee for the first 25 years would be 1.5 million kuna (€200,000) two-thirds of which would be paid to the Omisalj Municipality on Krk, and one third to the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.

SDP leader Davor Bernardic said that his party was with the citizens of Omisalj Municipality and the entire Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and that it supported the construction of an on-shore LNG terminal because if was development-based and environmentally acceptable and would create jobs.

Milatic rejected the predictions that the terminal’s capacity would not be fully leased.

“We estimate that it will operate at full capacity and that there will be no such problems. As for the investment, total investment is currently estimated at 250 million, of which 102 million has been secured from the EU. This means that we should ensure 150 million euros for this investment,” he said.

The opposition also criticised the ruling coalition for ignoring the local government of Omisalj, but Milatic dismissed their criticisms saying that the local government was fully included in this process.

Activists from the environmental protection NGO, Zelena Akcija, staged a protest outside the parliament building, saying that the bill was in the fast-track procedure to bypass the will of the local and regional community, shorten the procedure for the award of concessions and reduce the time for parliamentary and public debate on the issue. They said that this was unacceptable.

They called on the lawmakers to take into account the opinion of the local population and vote against the bill, saying that the terminal would have a significant impact on the environment. They said that the bill was not in the public interest, as it was environmentally unacceptable and unprofitable.

(€1 = 7.38 kuna)

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