Residents of Šavnik and Nikšić: The Government is unlawfully seizing private property in favour of the Arab company Alcazar Energy Partners

The civic initiative “Save Brezna” stated in a press release that the Government of Montenegro has adopted a decision which, they say, unlawfully declared an alleged public interest over hundreds of private parcels in the municipalities of Nikšić and Šavnik, without any reasoning and without specifying concrete projects.

“Owners of the parcels possess documentation proving that the Government, i.e., the Real Estate Administration of Montenegro, is planning to usurp their private property in favour of the private company Alcazar Energy Partners, headquartered in Dubai,” said residents of Nikšić and Šavnik—landowners supported by the civic initiative “Save Brezna”.

The owners of hundreds of parcels listed in the Government’s decision warn Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, Minister Slaven Radunović, the Director of the Real Estate Administration Marko Bulatović, and other involved actors that they will not allow the state—under the guise of an alleged public interest—to seize their private property for the benefit of Arab companies.

They expect a reaction from the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and from the European Commission, as, they say, this is an unprecedented case of institutional violations of the Constitution, laws and international conventions.

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“The disputed Government decision was adopted on 23 December last year without holding a session. In the decision itself, the purpose is stated only as the general formula ‘construction of electric power and road infrastructure’, without reasoning and without specifying the concrete project, route, variants—indeed, without even clarifying whether it concerns electricity infrastructure or road infrastructure. The Real Estate Administration has initiated procedures and scheduled oral public hearings for parcel owners, while failing to provide complete documentation with the invitations,” the statement by the affected landowners and the civic initiative Save Brezna reads.

The invitations state that the procedure is conducted within a purpose defined “for a period of 30 years”, which residents assess as an attempt to establish a permanent, blanket regime of restrictions on private property.

“Save Brezna” recalls that Alcazar Energy Partners—through its Montenegrin subsidiary “Vjetro park Bijela”—in mid-last year formally submitted a request to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property to declare public interest at the construction site and along the route of the connecting transmission line for its Bijela wind farm project in Šavnik.

The key proof, residents add, that this is not any infrastructure of public interest but rather a private project, is found in the documentation on the valuation of real estate, also prepared at the request of Minister Slaven Radunović, who is also the signatory of the request to the Government to declare “public interest”.

“In the report of the Real Estate Administration’s commission, it is explicitly stated that the purpose of the valuation is ‘partial expropriation for the construction of the Bijela wind power plant in Šavnik’, i.e. ‘Vjetropark Bijela’, and it also mentions the ‘final beneficiary of the expropriation (LLC Vjetropark Bijela)’, whose owner is Alcazar Energy Partners, headquartered in Dubai. When state documents explicitly link expropriation to a private project, while the Government adopts a generic decision without reasoning, this raises serious suspicion of abuse of the public-interest instrument, unlawful influence, and corrupt practices,” the residents said.

They add that the fact that, in numerous activities, acts and actions related to what they suspect is unlawful “support” for private energy companies, the same actors repeatedly appear—the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, the Real Estate Administration of Montenegro, the Montenegrin Transmission System Operator (CGES), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and their top officials as signatories of all disputed acts.

This, they say, indicates serious suspicion that an organised group and coordinated action by a larger number of actors is involved, aimed at obtaining unlawful benefit for legal and natural persons—members of the group—at the expense of citizens and the state.

“Emissaries of Alcazar Energy Partners pressured us to give up our land and threatened us with expropriation. Now their blackmail and threats of expropriation are being formally attempted by the Government, i.e. the Real Estate Administration, at the request of Minister Slaven Radunović,” the residents said, adding that they have already initiated legal proceedings in accordance with the law, including a criminal complaint to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office.

Save Brezna also recalls that it recently uncovered unlawful registrations of alleged expropriation in favour of the Montenegrin Transmission System Operator (CGES), followed by registrations of servitude rights for a transmission line in favour of Alcazar Energy Partners / Vjetro park Bijela on parcels in Brezna. The Director of the Real Estate Administration, Bulatović, they say, refused to answer questions and provide documentation, but the notations were later deleted, likewise without adequate documentation.

They also recall that the independent accountability mechanism of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), IPAM (Independent Project Accountability Mechanism), accepted their complaint regarding the planned construction of an international energy hub in the village of Brezna—one of the few villages in Montenegro that is seeing new residents and is rapidly developing as a tourism destination.

A.D.