The closure of the Roșia Montană case is a victory for society – Personal testimonies from key players in the process at MCC’s event

The recent context that catalyzed the discussion: in early March, Romania won in the Roșia Montană case in which Gabriel Resources was seeking approximately $6.7 billion in damages, according to the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The international arbitration action was initiated in 2015 against Romania by two foreign investors, Gabriel Resources Ltd. and Gabriel Resources (Jersey).

"Without the street protests in 2013 we would not have achieved this victory," said Korodi Attila, former Minister of the Environment in 2007-2008, 2012 and 2014, currently mayor of Csíkszereda/Miercurea Ciuc. He was the one who suspended the authorisation process for the Roșia Montană project, a decision for which he was sued by Roșia Montană Gold Corporation in 2008 for damages of almost €1 million. In early March, the company lost the case against the Romanian state and the former minister. At the event, he spoke about past years, the suspension of the environmental impact assessment, the effect of civic involvement and the pressures he faced in the political sphere.

"When I took over the portfolio I was 29 years old and I made decisions based on documents, going by the letter of the law and working with other ministries and NGOs. In fact, this collaboration between NGOs and the state was a rare case (...) At that time I was not interested in how much gold was in those mountains and I did not go to Roșia Montană when I was minister because this could have been misinterpreted and misreported. What interested me most was the environmental safety of the tailings pond, the dangers and harmful effects that could occur. Later, when I was a member of the Special Parliamentary Committee on the subject and had a different status, I went to the site", detailed Korodi Attila.

The guests agreed that the whole opposition to the mining in Roșia Montană can be seen as a struggle of brave young people, of incurable optimists "who walked with the law in their hands and firmly believed that by taking one step at a time, they would reach the end". "Children's crusade", as Marius Harosa put it.

"Solving this case was also a Deus ex machina in the sense that this happy ending came when perhaps we didn't expect it. The legal battle, which currently totals 54 lawsuits, was like a swamp, it was huge, it was pharaonic", stressed Dr. Liviu-Marius Harosa, a lawyer who represented pro bono, for almost 20 years, the associations of the residents of Roșia Montană and other NGOs in the lawsuits concerning the suspension and annulment of administrative acts issued by local and central public authorities in favour of the investor RMGC. He was also part of the international team of lawyers that filed three amicus curiae briefs for the NGOs listed above in the ICSID Washington arbitration dispute between Gabriel Resources Ltd and the Romanian State. He is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Babeș-Bolyai University. During the event, Marius Harosa brought to the forefront the legal complexities of the case and the strategies that paved the way to success. He talked about the other legal experts who worked on this complex case: Andreea Szabo, Stefania Simion and Dumitru Dobrev, as well as Crenguța Leaua, the leader of the team of Romanian lawyers who won the case.

"One of these amicus curiae (whereby persons qualified in a particular field are allowed to participate in the proceedings, the submissions being such as to support the proper resolution of the case - ed.) concerned the lack of social license for the project, the lack of support from the community: locals and those in the area opposed the project," the lawyer pointed out.

"The fact that Roșia Montană is a UNESCO heritage site could not have prevented a possible loss of the process, there was a case about receiving back the money invested by RMGC, it was about compensation, restitutio in integrum," Harosa stressed. The victory in Washington was not predictable, on the contrary. In ICSID cases, "usually states lose, investors win," according to Dr Marius Harosa.

Tică Darie studied multimedia design in Denmark and in 2012 and 2013 he cycled twice from Copenhagen to Roșia Montană to protest against the destruction project. He has lived in the village for 10 years, has two children and is now preparing to run for mayor for the third time. He has set up a social business, Made in Roșia Montană, which produces merino wool clothes in his own tailoring workshop in the village, as well as hand-knitted clothing by local ladies. Through his unique experience, Tică spoke about the power of community and civic activism that turned a local protest into a national movement. "When the first protests were organized, I had a friend from Suceava who was in the 12th grade and she initiated a protest in Suceava, with hundreds of people participating. Can you imagine, a young girl of 18 to do this", detailed Tică Darie.

He believes that the FânFest festival also played an important role in crystallising civic awareness, and that the protests abroad and the visits of young people to Roșia also played a role. "They are small pieces in the thousands of pieces of the puzzle that made up this struggle," he said.  As for the future of Roșia Montane, Tică is confident that things will improve in the local community, even if at the moment most of the buildings are owned by RMGC: more and more young people are moving or investing in the locality. "Small initiatives, small investments that provide jobs I think are the solution, not something huge," he says.

"We thank the people of Roșia Montană who fought for their community: without them we could not get here, without them we had nothing to save", concluded Marius Harosa.

Roșia Montană proved to be the public issue that most mobilised Romanian civil society on an environmental issue, serving as a prelude to the current reactions of Romanian civil society and coming as a natural response to the global social movements of that period. The street protests of that time crystallised an active civil society and, as a consequence, a political class increasingly attentive to environmental issues.