Local Community Gornja Brezna to CGES: Are You Trying to Intimidate the Local Community Fighting to Save Their Homes?

Residents of Gornja Brezna – Civic Initiative “Save Brezna” have sent an open letter to the state-owned energy company CGES, which accused them of “undermining the state” and “damaging the reputation of their company” for, as they say, “personal or narrow interest goals.”

“They are trying to intimidate us with announcements of lawsuits against us, as well as against media outlets that publish our statements. We are eagerly awaiting those proceedings. They cannot intimidate or stop us because we have documented all our claims. We hope the media are not afraid either,” reads the open letter from the residents of Gornja Brezna.

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Full content of the open letter is reproduced below:

“Dear representatives of the energy company CGES, which is majority state-owned, and therefore also ours – the citizens of this country.

You are a powerful company, with many employees receiving very high salaries, you invest and achieve large profits. You have official cars and company cards, you meet with representatives of the international community, foreign investors, and state officials. We understand that you are too high up to see a small village in Piva and its residents, over whose yards and roofs you plan to build an international energy hub.

We are glad that you responded to our claims, which we have backed with documents and firmly stand behind, showing that you finally see that we exist — because that was not the case in the project documentation we downloaded from the official EBRD website, on the basis of which the credit from this reputable financial institution was obtained for the 400kV transformer station project in the center of our village, just a few hundred meters from the first houses.

So, once again: In the document “Non-Technical Summary,” in the section “Baseline Environmental and Social Conditions,” it says, and we quote: “There are no residential or business buildings near the Brezna TS. The nearest settlement to Brezna TS is Gornja Brezna (approximately 2 km from Brezna TS) with 48 inhabitants” (see image 3).

This document is available on the official EBRD website at: https://www.ebrd.com/home/work-with-us/projects/psd/54749.html#customtab-c6f28c9728-item-c1e43886e6-tab

Once again, this is an absolute falsehood. The Gornja Brezna Transformer Station is planned to be built in the very center of the populated, lively village of Gornja Brezna. This village is the most populated and lively village in the Plužine Municipality. People with family estates are returning, and many are buying land and building houses and tourist facilities. The first houses are only a few hundred meters from the existing and planned future 400kV transformer station.

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In the publicly available documentation, which we carefully studied, there are numerous measures which, under strict EBRD rules, you were obliged to take in communicating with the directly affected local community and including them in the process from the earliest planning phase. None of these measures have been undertaken because the entire documentation is based on a key falsehood that within a 2 km radius of the planned energy facility there are no houses or residents.

You do not refute our claims or the referenced document with a single word. Instead, you accuse us, the local community fighting to save our village, of “undermining the state” and, as you say, damaging your company’s reputation for, as you state, “personal or narrow interest goals.” We have only disclosed documentation. Nothing else. Who is damaging Montenegro’s reputation, at the gates of the EU, will be determined by credible institutions.

Since you accuse us of “damaging your international reputation” for personal interests, we respond: Our interests are much more than personal — they are our homes, our properties, our health and lives, the future of our children.

But what are your interests that this village and life in it should cease to exist? What are the interests of the state of Montenegro that the only village in Montenegro where people come and settle should cease to exist? Our neighbors today are even citizens of the United Kingdom, and we believe their embassy will pay attention to them.

You try to intimidate us, and also the media that publish our statements, with lawsuits for alleged damage to the international reputation of the company. Ladies and gentlemen of CGES, we look forward to these lawsuits and court proceedings because you will finally have to explain how within a 2 km radius of the planned 400kV transformer station “there is no house” according to your so-called experts. There are about 100, and new ones are popping up daily. Beautiful, small, mostly made of wood and stone, so they do not spoil the natural environment.

Now that you see we exist, we ask you several questions. We do not assert anything, we only ask:

1. Do you believe that the intimidation campaign against us, the residents defending our homes, succeeded due to a lack of arguments?

2. Should we fear for our safety and the safety of our families?

3. Are you aware of EBRD mechanisms when those who have objections to projects financed by EBRD are intimidated?

4. Are you aware of the consequences this case, which we only disclosed, will have on the international reputation and European path of Montenegro and closing an extremely important chapter in negotiations?

5. Have you heard us when we repeatedly said that, ultimately, machines will not enter Brezna if you persist with this plan? Maybe over our bodies or if we all end up in prison.

6. Have you ever thought that many CGES projects are delayed precisely because of strong resistance from local communities, exactly because you “do not see” those local communities when planning projects?”