The civil society attended yesterday, 28th of April 2017, a meeting called in Divjaka by Mabetex Group on the project “Divjake Resort Albania”. The meeting was confronted with concealement of information, lack of freedom of speech, lack of answers for those posed questions, the abuse of those holding the microphone and verbal violence from the crowd. It was a sessions all worth for the Chinese cultural revolution but not at all for Divjaka and Albania which aims its EU integration. That meeting should not be called as public consultation as far as the environmental public had no freedom of speech. We ask the Ministry of Environment, as the guardian of the environmental public consultation rights, to say “No” to this farce and distancing itself from the illegality of this process. Meanwhile, again yesterday, the respective Parliamentary Commission on environment, discussed the new Protected Areas Law through accelerated procedure and passed it for approval to the other commissions and the Parliament. Despite many positive sides, the article 49 of the new law, seems to allow the construction of highways and urbanization of the Sustainable Use Subarea of the National Park. Meaning that through the new law, only a step away from its Parliamentary approval, the Mabetex Group will finally have even the legal right to construct inside the Sustainable Use Area. The current, existing law prevents as such. Nevertheless, we ensure that the civil society, should not retreat from its mission for transparency and protection of the public good. #Localtransparency #Freedomofspeech #NationalPark #Natureprotection
