Romania

Romania Seeks World Heritage Status For Transylvania Village

January 7, 2017 Paola Totaro and Claudia Ciobanu, www.af.reuters.com Resist! Gold, Mining, Romania

By Paola Totaro and Claudia Ciobanu for Reuters - LONDON, Jan 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Romania has asked the United Nations to make a Transylvanian village boasting 18th century houses and intact Roman mining shafts into a World Heritage site in a surprise 11th hour move that could protect it from a gold mine project. The request to list Rosia Montana was announced as the government of Dacian Ciolos handed over power this week to the incoming Social Democrat Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, who won elections last month. Romania's outgoing culture minister said in a statement late Thursday that a request had been sent to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

From Cyanide Gold Mine To Protected Historical Site

February 8, 2016 Madalina Preda, www.m.greenpeace.org Resist! Environment, Mine, Protests, Romania

By Madalina Preda for GreenPeace International - For the past 15 years, Canadian mining firm Gabriel Resources has been trying to obtain a permit to extract 300 tonnes of gold from underneath Roșia Montană, a picturesque village in western Romania, with a population of almost 4,000 people. But today, the Romanian government has added the village and its surroundings to their official nominee list for the UNESCO world heritage site. This decision comes a few weeks after Roșia Montană was declared a site of historic interest by the Romanian Ministry of Culture, and stands as a testament to the power of peaceful protest.

European Mining Dispute Shows Risk Of Corporate Trade Deals

July 30, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Educate! Environment, Europe, Mining, Romania, Trade Deal, TTIP

By Deirdre Fulton in Common Dreams - Offering a stark warning of how corporate-friendly trade pacts like the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) put both democracy and the environment at risk, a Canadian company is seeking damages from Romania after being blocked from creating an open-pit gold mine over citizen concerns. Gabriel Resources Ltd. announced last week that it had filed a request for arbitration with the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a body not unlike the secret tribunals that critics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have warned against. The corporation's Rosia Montana open-pit gold mine project stalled after a series of protests in cities across Romania in 2013 demanded Gabriel's plan be dropped.

A Surge Of Student Strikes Upsets Romania

May 16, 2015 Teodor Fleseru, www.occupy.com Resist! Education, Romania, Strikes, Student Activism

Students this month from several Romanian universities have occupied amphitheaters, sleeping in overnight, threatening with a hunger strike and boycotting midterm exams. Fed up with government passivity for the past eight years, and with the inefficiency of an Education, Research and Innovations Ministry that always promises and never delivers, the students are demanding 6% of the gross domestic product be allotted to education. In Timișoara, the students occupied a bus used to transport them from one school to another – only this time they used it to talk other students into joining the protest gig, voicing their hopes, beliefs and anger along the way.

Angry Romanians Call For Debt Relief

February 22, 2015 Teodor Fleseru, www.occupy.com Resist! Debt, Romania, Switzerland

Billions of people are squirming in sordid poverty trying to make ends meet; everybody is scaling down, giving up or away whatever they acquired out of greed or pride. And sometimes they give up things they need the most – or rather, it’s taken away from them, like a car, a house, their home, their life. Why? Because they’ve got a loan or mortgage they can’t pay back – usually a Swiss Franc loan. This is the drama now consuming over 75,000 Romanians who have been baited by the banks with hoopla and big promises based on the unchangeable course of the mighty Franc. It's said that at the time, the banks borrowed billions to appeal to people's subconscious, subliminal resistance and their unbridled temptations: no need for a steady job, low interest rates, hasty approval, trendy deal - stuff that made one feel differently cool, Swiss cool. And to top it off, this was the sole crediting option at that particular time in history. Go figure. The banks had no qualms about it; they scored big time. Now the fight is on. Two thousand protesters gathered on Jan. 25 in Constitution Plaza in Bucharest . . .

Direct Action Forces Chevron To Suspend Drilling

December 8, 2013 Staff, www.sfgate.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Fracking, Romania

U.S. oil company Chevron has suspended exploration for shale gas in northeastern Romania after hundreds of anti-fracking protesters tore down fences. Chevron won approval to drill exploratory wells in the town of Pungesti, but halted work for a second time Saturday after residents blocked access to the site. Hundreds of riot police couldn't prevent residents from demolishing fences and breaking into the site. Dozens were detained and 14 were charged with destruction of property and carrying knives. Chevron said it had suspended work "as a result of unsafe conditions" and informed police of destruction to its property.

Battle In Pungesti, Romania And Fight To Save Earth

December 7, 2013 Adam Seaman, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Fracking, Romania

Q: Can you explain to the readers what the protests in Pungesti are about and why it is important to Romania and the World in general? Brianna: They are against fracking. First of all, no one was consulted regarding fracking operations being done in their area. And in the Pungesti area only, it seems Chevron leased or bought about 24.000 acres. Now correct information about the dangers of Hidraulic Fracking is well known, and yet our government just singlehandedly deceided to welcome Chevron (and a few others, including Russian Gazprom) with open arms. Against people’s will. To the rest of Romania it’s a signal that together we can fight back, and make our opinion be heard. We CAN fight the system, and we are ! Today 70 percent of Romania’s territory is being “okayed” for fracking. Are they insane? To the rest of the world : look, we are a small East European country. Communist dictatorship until 1989. Corrupt governments since. And yet we do rise, and persevere !

Romania Says No To Europe’s Largest Gold Project

November 12, 2013 Frik Els, www.mining.com Resist! Gold, Mining, Romania

After months of street protests across Romania against Canada's Gabriel Resources proposed gold mine at Rosia Montana, the parliamentary commission appointed to rework the project rejected it. Toronto-listed Gabriel (TSE:GBU) was trading nearly 11% lower in early afternoon trade on Monday on the news, although Romania Insider reports "this is not the end for the gold mining project, as the Parliament is expected to draft a new law." The $311 million counter is down 65% this year as plans to develop an open-cast mine which once in production will be Europe’s largest producing 500,000oz/year, face increasing opposition from environmental and community groups.

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