On 28 July, the Secretariat sent an Opening Letter to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Case ECS-1/15. The Secretariat takes the preliminary view that the environmental impact assessment procedure of the planned thermal power plant Ugljevik 3 in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not carried out in compliance with the Energy Community acquis communautiare on environment.

In particular, the Secretariat took the view that the permitting procedure failed to fully address all direct and indirect impact of the projects as well is its potential transboundary impacts, as required by the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. Furthermore, the Secretariat found that the Directive’s provisions on public participation were not fully respected.

Procedure:

The purpose of this initial step in the procedure is to give Bosnia and Herzegovina the possibility to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law, and enabling the Secretariat to establish the full factual and legal background of the case. According to Articles 7 and 17 of the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement, interested parties may be granted access to the case file and may submit written observations on the present case to the Secretariat during the preliminary procedure.

Steps taken

On 16 March 2018, the Energy Community Secretariat submitted a Reasoned Opinion in Case ECS-1/15 against Bosnia and Herzegovina for its failure to comply with the rules on environmental impact assessment in the case of the planned TPP Ugljevik 3. Having taken into account the two replies of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations to the Opening Letter, the Secretariat considers that the argumentation provided therein does not change the findings of the Secretariat in the Opening Letter.

Procedure

A Reasoned Opinion is the second step in a dispute settlement procedure initiated by the Secretariat under Article 90 of the Energy Community Treaty. Depending on the reply of the Contracting Party, the Secretariat may submit the case to the Ministerial Council for a decision on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s compliance with Energy Community law.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is now requested to rectify the identified issues of non-compliance within a time limit of two months.

On 18 May 2018, the Secretariat submitted a Reasoned Request on the Case ECS-01/15 following failure of Bosnia and Herzegovina to rectify the breaches identified by the Secretariat.

Following Settlement Agreement between the Ministry of Physical Planning, Civil Engineering and Ecology of Republika Srpska and the Legal Unit of the Secretariat on 19 November 2018, the Ministry revoked the validity of the administrative decisions subject to Case ECS-1/15 and its validity was not confirmed by the District Court of Banja Luka.

As the permit that forms the subject matter of Case ECS-1/15 is no longer valid and the domestic judicial procedures that were initiated with the aim to declare its annulment by the Ministry illegal have also been concluded, the case is closed.