Government withdraws from alleged former General Clark project

The company's “Envidity” project of US General Wesley Clark, which aims to take Kosovo's quarter for coal exploitation, has been withdrawn from further proceedings in the Kosovo Assembly. It turned out that the Kosovo government had prosecuted this project in the country without a feasibility study and without pre-designing the national strategy for the exploitation of lignite.

He has decided to open his own letters to Muhamet Mustafa, chairman of the Commission for Economic Development in the recent legislature, writes the Word newspaper.

He, for Gazette Word, has said that the Commission has not approved this project, but also that of the company “SharrCem”, because neither of them met the basic conditions.

The commission came up with two key recommendations.

He asked the Government to do a feasibility study and to pre-design a national strategy for how to exploit lignite.

After that, the government completely withdrew. He removed both projects from the procedure.

The government has completely drawn this project” from these recommendations, says Mustafa, who has criticised the work of the past government in this case.

Mustafa: They wanted to benefit certain interest groups

Mustafa has even doubted that if these projects were to pass without those conditions being met, it would be real opportunities to benefit certain interest groups.

“is determined by politics, whether from the business field”, he said briefly, without giving up who these interest groups might have been.

We boast that our greatest wealth is coal, maybe we're among 4 or 5 countries rich in coal, but we still don't have strategy for using coal”, Mustafa says.

According to Mustafa, using coal, in contemporary conditions, has its environmental, financial but technological limits.

So we've requested that a feasibility study be made for these two projects to see where the options and limits of the use of the limit are and with what technologies”.

Mustafa has also suggested that his descendants not allow any license to be granted without these conditions being met.

Ministry of Finance doesn't know where the project is

On the other hand, in the Ministry of Finance, which is led by Avdullah Hoti, although the main drivers for these projects, do not know that company projects “have been withdrawn from procedure. Envidity” and “SharrCem”.

In a brief response to Gazeta, from the Office for Information at the Ministry, they have said these two projects are located in the Assembly for final approval.

“Projects “Sharcem” is handled under the relevant law of Mines and Mines by the Committee for The PPP, after which the process has been submitted for further review by the government. With the government's approval received, these projects have been submitted to the Republic of Kosovo's Parliament for final approval. For detailed information, please ask from the Kosovo Assembly”, the responses of this ministry are reported.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Economic Development Commission, Muhamet Mustafa, who has been handling these projects, has confirmed that the Government itself has drawn projects from the procedure, following remarks it received on the part of the Commission.

The government had passed Clark's project illegally

The Word newspaper had written earlier that the Kosovo government had avoided legislation in force to push ahead with the Kosovo underground coal gasification project by General Wesley K. Clark.

“Evidwitti”, as it is also called General Clark's company, aims to take the quarter of Kosovo for the use of coal from which to produce gas and electricity.

The newspaper Word has secured the Ministry of Finance's report, in which remarks have been given by the Commission for Mine and Minerals concerning legal violations and steps to follow until its implementation.

About the “Evidity” project, The KPM has found that the biggest legal offense is in the area the company has demanded to make available for blasting coal. That's why company “Envidity” has not received a license since 2013, when it applied.

With the Law on Mine and Minerals, no company can hold research licenses more than 300 kilometers per square, until the company's project “Envidity” had gone with the demand for over 1,000 miles.

“Mining and Mineral Law, Article 21 points 2.2 points to that no research license can be greater than 100km, while the same article points out that no company can hold more than 300km of research licenses, so in view of the demand of the Envidity Company exceeds 3,000 thousand kilometers, the KPM suggests that the demand modification company be asked in line with the Law for Miniera and Miteria <x1, the report states that a copy of the paper has provided the paper.

But even after passing the project to the Assembly, the Envidity company has yet to obtain licenses at the KPM, which is issued under the Law on Mine and Minerals.

Furthermore, the KPM recommends that, in the case of the application's adoption, the company will be conditioned that, after completing the research, limit the demand for exploitation to the area, which has enough reserves for project development, while the other area is released for projects of interest in the Republic of Kosovo.

Even so, The KPM in the same report has found that this institution will grant the company license that Clarke, if the Government of Kosovo and the Parliament decides for that in advance. According to the law, this company should reduce the area from 3,000 to 300 square kilometers to be equipped with licenses.

But, the government proceeded to the Assembly without taking into account KPM recommendations at all.

 Project Risks Water and Earth

The newspaper Word also indicates that water and land pollution can be found on the company's project.

In both cases, even the danger of such pollution is evident.

Water pollution according to this report cannot be denied, even it can be available at any time.

“Of course the pollution of underground waters and surfaces is not denied as the possibility, but the published facts show that out of 34 UCG pilot projects carried out in North America, only two have resulted in pollution in the black waters”, the report says.

It has also shown that pollution of the earth can also be brought to this project.

“Finally, it can be said that environmental pollution from the process UCG, it's possible, but it's not constant and its natural level depends on ability and professionalism in its implementation... ”.

Meanwhile, the report reportedly says that in terms of implementation, Envidity will implement the project in two phases. In the first phase, the company aims to produce 1,200 barrels of derivatives per day, while in the second phase, it aims to produce 20,000 barrels of derivatives per day”

“Operator Ovidity, in the submitted documents, has influenced that this project could be developed, which will result in the construction of capacities for electricity productivity”.

Otherwise, the “Envidity” company in the project presented has said it will invest 30m euros as a start, until later investments will be dependent on the phases of the project, as well as employ hundreds of workers.