PEOPLE FROM POMURJE DEMAND A MEETING WITH PRIME MINISTER CERAR

Murska Sobota, 19.2.2018 – Association of Moja Mura, which works in the public interest in the field of nature conservation and the Museum of Madness, Trate, which works in the public interest in the field of culture, sent a request on 9th February to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia for a meeting with representatives of campaign Save the Mura!.

The public presentation of the Energy Concept of Slovenia (EKS), which still includes hydropower plants on the Mura River, is currently underway. One of the last consultations will be held on 22.2. in Maribor after the Ministry of Infrastructure published a list of all received comments by the interested public on January 19, and the final draft will be adopted on March 2, 2018.

EKS has a significant impact on the future of energy in Slovenia and the policies of the future, with great consequences for the population, economy, nature and ecology and the development of a modern energy society. Therefore, it should not be limited to current and in many ways outdated solutions and technologies, but must be focused on the future and include modern energy solutions that will contribute to the decarbonation of Slovenia and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is not the case currently.

Why do Pomurje people want a meeting with the Prime Minister?

“We turned to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia because of the uncertainty about the planned construction of hydropower plants on the Mura, the attitude of the state representatives and big  concerns in our region. Due to the lack of transparency of procedures, the inconsistency of responses from ministries, the Prime Minister himself and the arrogance of state representatives, we want to meet with the Pime minister, in which we expect that the situation will be clarified and will tell us about the positions of our Government regarding the future of this region and especially the Mura river, which we see as an important development potential,”

said Samo Tuš, President of the Association of the Associations of My Mura.
Walk by the river Mura , © by Marjan Maučec

“Mr. Cerar was first contacted on 19 January 2018. Our second request is a response to the president’s unexpected decision to resign our request to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. We are addressing him mainly because the competent ministries that run the procedures for the construction of hydropower plants on the Mura River proceed with the procedures regardless of the fact that the Environmental Report has shown too big impact of the HPPs on nature and that the local population has repeatedly demanded the exclusion hydropower plants on the Mura River from all spatial and energy documents,”

said Dr. Sonja Bezjak, head of the Museum of Madness, Trate.