The Ministry of Energy has initiated a draft Government Decision which stipulates the allocation of 11,4 million lei for the expropriation of the land necessary for the extension of the lignite mining works in the Roşia de Jiu mining perimeter in Gorj county. The project provides the grant of 11.469.040 lei, for a number of buildings with a total area of 139.787 hectares.

“The individual sums shall be paid by the Ministry of Energy, within 30 days from their request, into a bank account opened on behalf of the Complexul Energetic Oltenia-S.A. company at the disposal of the building owners (…), in regard of the payment of compensations in the expropriation proceedings, according to the law”, it is shown in the draft law, according to Agerpres.

The initiators explain, in the substantiation note, that the acquisition of land in the mining perimeter is taking place with great difficulty, as the owners have exaggerated financial claims or refuse the alienation of the property. Also, special problems arise from the lack of property ownership and by litigations between heirs regarding succession over jointly owned assets.

Under these circumstances, frequent machinery blockages are recorded, and also repeated maneuvers for changing working fronts and changes in transport circuits, which negatively affect coal production and increase production costs.

“The activity of exploiting lignite deposits is a particularly complex activity that takes place on large areas of land, which are private owned by the citizens, and also on public and private property of the state under management, which is why the economic operator involved in the exploitation of the lignite deposit encounters difficulties in taking over the land necessary for the execution of the mining works. Passing the procedures for obtaining these lands produces major delays in the execution of the works and the preparation of the work fronts involves very high costs which result in the increase of the price per ton of lignite and the impossibility of insuring the necessary amount of lignite for electricity production”, states the explanatory note.

Representatives of the ministry explain that it is necessary to expedite the expropriation procedures in order to implement the country’s mining industry strategy.

“Considering that the implementation of the Governance Program, the Energy Strategy of Romania for the period 2007-2020, correlated with the Strategy of the Mining Industry and taking into account the urgent need to adopt a series of measures in order to accelerate the expropriation procedure for the case of public utility of national interest of the land needed for the mining works for the exploitation of lignite deposits and the production of electricity, it is necessary to elaborate and promote a normative act for the approval of the site and the expropriation of all the buildings that constitute the expropriation corridor, to be submitted for government approval”, according to the substantiation note.