Parliament is expected to deal with a petition against uranium mining, the spokesperson for Greenpeace in Slovakia, Lucia Szabová, told the TASR newswire on Monday, November 2. “As the verification of signatures in Parliament confirmed that the petition was supported by more than 100,000 Slovak citizens, it will be included in the December parliamentary session and the committees' programme,” said Szabová.
The petition was submitted in September by several environmental organisations including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the civic associations Sozna and Brečtan.
“The petition against the planned uranium mining is the biggest environmental petition in Slovak history,” said the director of Greenpeace in Slovakia, Juraj Rizman, adding that it is also the first case in which Slovak environmental organisations have been able to have their issues discussed by Parliament.
The civic initiative against uranium mining is trying to persuade MPs to take all environmental, health-related as well as economic risks into consideration. They have also prepared proposals for legislative amendments that would widen the access of local governments to information concerning geological research, which would enable them to deal with land planning - excluding the possibility of uranium mining - more effectively.
In addition to 113,000 citizens, the petition has also been supported by 41 local authorities from areas between Nové Mesto nad Váhom in Trenčín Region and Zemplín in Košice Region. According to the environmentalists, uranium mining brings risks mainly to the handling of enormous amounts of radioactive materials. Several mining companies have been looking for uranium ore throughout Slovakia in recent years. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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