Prime Minister promises accountability for Gospić waste debacle

Chief State Attorney Ivan Turudić has announced that three more reports on illegal waste disposal in Gospić and Varaždin will be published shortly, saying the findings so far demonstrate that state institutions are doing their job.

"I think that yesterday's report is a win for institutions. Proving that institutions are doing their job. In June we adopted amendments to the State Attorney's Office rules of procedure, which provided us with the ability to commission investigative proceedings or monitoring at our discretion if we believe it is in the public interest. So far we have published four reports, and shortly we will publish another three reports," Turudić said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has pledged urgent remediation of the Gospić site and continued monitoring, with the results of testing to be made public.

"The government, ministry and fund, together with all of the legal persons involved, will monitor the surface water and groundwater, clean the landfill and publish the results of all testing. Because citizens do not have to trust anyone at their word, but should instead rely on truthful and reliable data from the competent Croatian institutions. Gospić is also an opportunity for the country to learn a lesson, as a good system is one that learns from its mistakes and weaknesses, and corrects them and further develops that same system," the Prime Minister said.

Opposition MPs, meanwhile, are calling for political accountability from Plenković and his government over the waste in Gospić, following findings that confirmed severe groundwater contamination.

They are also demanding that the Government regularly report to Parliament on the progress of the remediation and that taxpayers not be left to cover the costs of cleaning up the site.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said he expects the Government to submit amendments to the Criminal Code that would introduce the offence of ecocide and tougher penalties for environmental violations.

Jandroković said illegal waste dumping had been "happening for decades" and argued that successive governments had failed to address the problem adequately.

"This is not a phenomenon that happened yesterday, but unfortunately it has been going on for a very long time and there are a lot of illegal dumps in Croatia and it seems to me that we have not been focused enough on solving these problems by any government so far," he said.

He added that the Gospić case should serve as a catalyst for stronger action.

"There have always been other priorities, but this case must be a strong impulse that will actually lead to the government taking intensive measures to clear up this issue," Jandroković said.