Cav's Place

ISDS courts are known as an unfortunately particularly effective way for rich and powerful corporations to force states to allow them to exploit anything and everything for profit, without any care for the consequences, and drastically punish those who “dare” to try to protect the environment, human or workers’ rights, or anything else. So when the company behind the Rosia Montana mining project used such a court to sue Romania for blocking it, it was generally expected that we’ll end up paying billions. And our authorities didn’t just make no secret of that, but they actually kept stressing that likely outcome over the years, trying to blame their opponents for it, and the fact that Rosia Montana was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List kept being mentioned as the main reason why the case will be lost, even if, taken logically, such a recognition of the value of the site should count as a particularly strong argument in favor of banning such exploitation.
Such statements became particularly frequent at the start of February, the leaders of the large parties and much of the media once again making a priority of the matter, saying that the decision was supposed to come on February 10 and that Romania was likely to be sentenced to pay two billion dollars, so they were supposedly looking into negotiating a payment plan, while of course continuing to blame their opponents for the situation even if these parties are the ones that actually created it. What was strange was that the date of February 10 was actually incorrect, the real date being March 8, and that could apparently be quite easily verified, but most of the media didn’t bother to do so, which led to the topic just sort of dying down a little once that date passed, only to obviously return when the real date of the decision approached, at which point the possibility of Romania being forced to allow the project to continue, or even that this might be something that Romania could offer the company instead of the payment, also started being mentioned by politicians and the media, the Prime Minister also stating that he’d want a referendum on the matter. So the fact that the decision was going to be against Romania seemed to be a sure thing, those who’d have been supposed to fight for a different outcome seeming to have never believed that it was possible and only a few of the activists from the “old guard” even daring to ask to wait and see what will actually happen.
Understandably, these discussions pretty much flooded the media yesterday, while waiting for the decision. And in the vast majority of cases they continued along the same lines, with the fact that we were going to need to pay billions being taken as a sure thing, the possibility that we might either be forced or offer to allow the project to continue also being openly discussed, the fact that the site was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List being presented as a terrible mistake at best and probably even something done with evil intent instead of the great thing that it actually is, and accusations and blame being thrown at the opponents of those who are currently in power, and occasionally also at the activists and protesters who fought to save the area.
As such, it came as a complete shock when, just a little before midnight, the news broke that the ruling was actually in Romania’s favor! I don’t think that even the most fervent activists, those who fought for Rosia Montana for so many years, still hoped for such an outcome, and the politicians and the media were quite clearly taken completely by surprise, the initial reactions making it pretty clear that they hadn’t prepared for this, and I even noticed discussions continuing along the lines of what if we would have had to pay or allow the project to continue! Of course, it’s much better to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised to be wrong than the other way around, but while that might have been the case for the activists, it quite clearly wasn’t for the politicians and the media, who had clearly seemed to want the case to be lost, and I can think of many reasons why.
So this should be a time of celebration, but the threat is far from over. For one, the decision was two to one, and while that seems pretty normal in such cases, since the investor appoints one of the three members and the state another, so those would be expected to rule in favor of their side, it does mean that one opinion, one person, could change everything, and the possibility for appeal does exist, and the company stated that it’s considering it. And when the license for the project is actually still valid, until June, and those who are in power here, along with that large majority of the media that does their bidding, seem to want the decision to have gone the other way and are quite inconvenienced by the victory, which takes away what they quite obviously intended to be an important weapon against their opponents in this “super-electoral” year and also a good excuse for the hard times that will come, there are good reasons to withhold those celebrations, at least for a while, and still prepare to fight back in case things will take a turn for the worse after all. But the victory remains such a pleasant shock, and offers reasons to hope that good things may still happen even in this world, which definitely should give all those who do, want to, or used to fight for something better strength to continue, start, or restart, as the case may be.