After 15 years of advocacy, two constitutional complaints by Zelena akcija (eng. Green Action) were recently adopted, which annulled all prerequisites for the realization of a harmful real estate project on Srđ in Dubrovnik.
However, if the spatial planning law is adopted on Monday, in a few years we will have thousands of urban sprawl projects like that planned on Srđ, all under an accelerated procedure. “This law must not pass!” Green Action warned today at a press conference in front of the Parliament, ahead of the vote on the aforementioned law on Monday.
Green Action has been involved in the “Srđ is Ours” initiative since 2010 and since then we have led various legal cases related to the goals of the initiative. We have won in the courts all the proceedings we initiated against the permits for the real estate project on Srđ. Yesterday, the European Commission, as part of its regular package of decisions on violations of EU law, announced that Croatia has violated the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, precisely in the aspect that Green Action warned the High Administrative Court about in this case back in 2019. If the Croatian court had listened to us then and addressed this question to the European Court of Justice, Croatia would not now be exposed to the risk of paying a fine, if this violation results in legal proceedings before the European Court. From the very beginning Zelena akcija was involved in the arbitration proceedings, in which the investor in the Srđ real-estate development project claimed 500 million euros in damages from the Republic of Croatia. The legal proceedings that we successfully conducted against the leviatanesque project on Srđ contributed to the investor’s claim for damages being rejected in full.
"In short, we have invested at least 15 years in protecting the public interest, legal order and budgetary resources of the Republic of Croatia. We have opposed bad decisions by both the SDP and HDZ governments. Former spatial planning minister Anka Mrak Taritaš opened Pandora's box when she enabled a precedent with the 2013 law - state-level urban development plans. She did this in order to have a tool with which to circumvent local initiatives and resistance, such as the one provided to the golf real-estate development of Srđ in Dubrovnik. Current minister Branko Bačić is turning this exception into a rule and the main principle of the functioning of spatial planning. If the spatial development law is adopted in a few years, we will have thousands of urban sprawl projects like the one planned on Srđ. This law must not pass!" emphasized Enes Ćerimagić, a lawyer for the Zelena akcija (eng. Green Action).
From the example of our successful struggle for the preservation of Duborovnik's Srđ hill, there is no doubt how important civil society is for the preservation of public interest, preservation of the rule of law and for the advancement of case law. But what is the price of our 15-year involvement in the defense of the public interest? The investor has, for more than eight years now, ran two court proceedings against Green Action and is demanding compensation that could shut Green Action down. For the last 10 years, systematic efforts have been made to shrink the civic space, as shown by the analysis of repression of advocacy organizations, which we published a year ago. We and organizations like ours are on the verge of survival. Our actions, guided by the protection of the weakest - whether they concern environment, women's rights, democratization, social issues, anti-fascism, human rights in general - because of the views we advocate, are declared as parapolitical and our work is stifled. Organizations are left without their long-term expert employees who are the key monitoring mechanism and corrective of any government.
"While hostile narratives against civil society organizations are promoted, in the background, through legislative changes, such as a current set of spatial laws, family silver is being sold off and public space is being put at the mercy of investors. We appeal to the Government to listen to the demands of the experts and civil society and to withdraw the spatial planning law, the consequences of which would only deepen the social rift," concluded Dora Sivka, president of Green Action.
This activity is funded under the public call for NGO and Thematic Resource Centre programmes of the Impact4Values 2.0 programme
Project duration: 01.11.2025.-31.10.2027.
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