Thirty activists from the ‘Save Rosia Montana!’ campaign yesterday gathered at Romania’s Ministry for the Environment; this just in time when members of the European Commission’s Directorate for the Environment where finishing their observations regarding Romania’s progress towards EU integration scheduled for 2007.

Cyanide Kills

Bucharest/Romania, 11 February 2006 – Thirty activists from the ‘Save Rosia Montana!’ campaign yesterday gathered at Romania’s Ministry for the Environment; this just in time when members of the European Commission’s Directorate for the Environment where finishing their observations regarding Romania’s progress towards EU integration scheduled for 2007.

The European Commission’s Directorate for the Environment claims to closely watch the developments at Rosia Montana. At the same time it also claims that the ultimate decision for the Rosia Montana gold mine proposal at lies with the Romanian authorities. Numerous NGOs, institutions, academicians and others have over the time expressed their opposition against the development of this controversial mine scheme. Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), the project owner, intends to submit the Environmental Impact Assessment study in late March 2006.

Members of the ‘Save Rosia Montana!’ campaign have since long feared that a decision to approve the mine has already been taken by the government. This is due to the complicit silence from the part of the Romanian government towards this project as well as their refusal to enforce harmonized environmental legislation and court sentences during the Rosia Montana EIA procedure. Last but not least, this also illustrates significant institutional incapacity and immaturity from the part of Romania’s ministry for the Environment to properly assess the Rosia Montana proposal.

Yesterday morning a group of thirty activists gathered in front of the ministry for the environment’s main entrance. Their faces were painted half in gold and half skeleton-like. They silently carried wooden crosses bearing a sign that read ‘Cyanide Kills’. As the EU Commissioners were on their way out they were greeted by a large banner that read ’Brussels: Rosia Montana is not for Sale – Don’t burry us in Cyanide!