Residents of Brezna Warn Prime Minister Spajić About Alcazar Energy: “They Have Already Violated the Constitution, Laws, and International Conventions”

The residents of the village of Brezna, gathered within the Civic Initiative “Save Brezna,” have sent an open letter to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić following yesterday’s news published in Montenegrin media that he signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the company Alcazar Energy Partners.

“The residents of Brezna warn the Prime Minister that this company has already violated the Montenegrin Constitution, laws, and international conventions concerning their local community,” they state in the open letter.

They appeal to Prime Minister Spajić to ensure that, when signing state agreements with private companies, the government insists on and integrates into those agreements the obligation to respect the Constitution, laws, international conventions, and the human and civil rights of Montenegrin citizens. The Civic Initiative “Save Brezna” concludes that this is his duty and responsibility as the head of government.

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“We remind you that the company Alcazar Energy is developing the Bijela Wind Farm project in the municipality of Šavnik, and the route of the transmission line is planned to pass through the village of Brezna, without the knowledge or consultation of residents and landowners. For the past six months, the residents of Brezna have been fighting not only against Alcazar Energy’s planned transmission line but also against the state energy company CGES’s intention to build a 400kV substation and international energy hub in the center of their village. According to them, this would mean the destruction of all economic activity, the forced displacement of the entire local community, and the complete devaluation of their property,” they added in their statement.

Their open letter to Prime Minister Spajić is published in full below:

“Dear Prime Minister Mr. Spajić,

Following yesterday’s media reports that you, on behalf of the Government of Montenegro, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the company Alcazar Energy at the International Investment Conference EU – Montenegro “Smart Growth, Green Future: Accelerating Investments in Montenegro” held in Luštica, attended by Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, we wish to inform and timely warn both the Government and the Montenegrin public about the credibility of the company Alcazar Energy, as well as the accuracy of their claims regarding their operations in Montenegro and the preparation of the Bijela Wind Farm project in the municipality of Šavnik, including the transmission line planned through part of the municipality of Plužine.

In its press release yesterday, Alcazar Energy claimed that it will operate, we quote, “in accordance with the highest standards of the international community, transparently and with the aim of strengthening community trust.” In relation to these claims, we would like to remind you that Alcazar Energy, through its Montenegrin subsidiary Wind Park Bijela, has already violated several Montenegrin laws, international conventions, and, through its actions toward the residents and the local community, entered the zone of criminal responsibility:

1. Alcazar Energy did not, in any way, inform the residents of Brezna about its project – the transmission line planned through our village – nor did it allow them to participate in the process in any way, thus directly violating the European Convention on Human Rights, the Aarhus Convention, and Montenegrin laws.

2. Alcazar Energy did not inform the residents of Brezna about the public hearing on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), nor were any residents aware of its preparation, in violation of Montenegrin laws and international conventions.

3. Alcazar Energy included in the EIA document the cadastral parcel numbers of Brezna residents and stated that it had signed lease agreements with them – without their knowledge or consent – which entails criminal liability.

4. Alcazar Energy sent its surveyors to measure private properties in Brezna and to map which land would be taken for its project, without the knowledge or consent of landowners, which also carries criminal liability.

5. Despite the residents’ unified opposition to routing the transmission line through their village, Alcazar Energy secretly sent paid “negotiators” to approach the most vulnerable residents – including a 95-year-old man living alone – trying to convince him to voluntarily give up his land, telling him it would otherwise be taken by expropriation.

6. Alcazar Energy has submitted a request to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism, and State Property to declare public interest in the case of the transmission line construction. We have well-founded suspicions that the ministry led by Minister Slaven Radunović might comply. This would mean that our private property, as has already happened in Brezna, could be forcibly seized with police assistance and handed over to Alcazar Energy, for their enormous profits, causing irreparable damage to our local community that lives from rural tourism, agriculture, and livestock farming.

7. Alcazar Energy also failed to inform the residents of Brezna about the alleged presentation of its transmission line project “in our village” – which was actually held in Plužine in July this year. They brought several members of a paid PR agency to pose as the audience and, as we suspect, falsified supporting documentation for the ESIA (Environmental and Social Impact Assessment) document. This document is necessary for them to obtain loan financing from international financial institutions.

8. According to our reliable information, Alcazar Energy is still in the process of applying for financing for the Bijela Wind Farm project with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and it is not true that they have already secured €200 million for investment in Montenegro. The bank has not yet approved the loan.

9. The company’s claim that it will invest €500 million in Montenegro by 2030 would require serious elaboration and guarantees to be taken even remotely seriously.

Considering the fact that, for example, Krnovo Green Energy, which earned €22 million in 2024 from its wind farm in Krnovo, has only one employee with a salary of €595.92, yet has already received tens of millions of euros in state subsidies, we ask – where is the public interest that is being so persistently emphasized rhetorically? We know well that these are extra profits for private companies and, as we have well-founded reasons to believe, for certain individuals in the system who enable them.

In addition to all the above, we remind you that we continue to strongly and unanimously oppose the state energy company CGES’s plan to build a 400kV substation in the center of our village, as the basis for an international energy hub. This would destroy the only village in the Piva region that is growing and developing, where young people are moving in to live in harmony with nature and sustainability principles.

We call upon you, in line with Montenegro’s strategic commitment to revitalizing rural areas and developing the north, to help your citizens stay on their land and continue their ecological and sustainable development projects — and to prevent the destruction and forced displacement of an entire local community.

For all these reasons, we urge you that when signing state agreements with private investors, you insist on the respect of the Constitution, laws, international conventions, and the human and civil rights of Montenegrin citizens. This is your duty and responsibility as the Prime Minister.”