Skouries project halted by ministerial decision – N. Lygeros
The Minister for Productive Reconstruction, the Environment and Energy has turned a vision into reality. By means of an official decision, the approvals for the technical studies have been revoked following a breach of the terms by the company Hellas Gold. In practical terms, this amounts to a suspension of works, and that in itself is already an achievement. We are not even going to analyse the issue in the context of the upcoming elections. It does not concern us at all, in the sense that the priority is to halt the destruction of nature and the lives of our people in Skouries. Nor does the issue of diplomacy have any substance in this sphere of action. It is certainly good that the Minister emphasised that investments are welcome, essential and necessary for our country, as this is the absolute truth. However, what is most important is that he stated the following: ‘Companies must also respect the terms to which they have committed, so that the public interest and the environment are not harmed’, an idea to which we would add not only the human dimension but also the concept of irreversible destruction. For this is the problem and the crux of the matter. This licence should never have been granted in the first place, as this is clearly a case of chemical mining. All the people who fought to stop this unacceptable exploitation were ignored for years. Now we are finally seeing an initial positive result, and even if it is only temporary, we will continue to fight to make it permanent. Because action alone is not enough; it must necessarily be followed by concrete steps.
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