The desecretization of the Roşia Montană contract was postponed

• Daniel Chiţoiu, the minister of the Economy: the contract can be made public at the request of the ANRM. The company must also be consulted.

• Dragoş Tănase, RMGC: I can not comment

• Ştefania Simion, Alburnus Maior: The USL changed several regulations already. It could very well change the law pertaining to this situation, to allow the desecretization of the exploitation license

The government will decide the desecretization of the exploitation license for Roşia Montană based on a written request of the National Agency for Mineral Resources (ANRM), but the investors must also give their agreement, the minister of the Economy, Daniel Chiţoiu said yesterday, after the meeting of the Government. He said: "the contract isn't secret, it is public. What is secret is the exploitation license, managed by the ANRM. Following a written request sent by the ANRM, the government will make a decision on the matter. The agreement of the investor is also necessary".

The Minister of the Environment and Forests, Rovana Plumb, said in the beginning of this week that the Romanian public needs to know the contents of the Roşia Montană mining project, and in this regard the Government was set to approve in its Wednesday meeting(ed. note: yesterday), the desecretization of this contract.

Last week, prime minister Victor Ponta asked for the information about the exploitation license to be made public: \"After a talk with the ministers, I will directly ask for the desecretization. If that contract is so helpful to Romania, it shouldn't be hidden, now should it? It's just that it has been lobbied for at the highest levels...\"

Contacted by "Bursa", the CEO of Roşia Montană Gold Corporation (RMGC), Dragoş Tănase, said he was unable to comment on whether the company would agree to the desecretization of the information in question.

According to the law, the exploitation license contract is classified, he said, and if the Romanian government decides to make the contract public, RMGC will comply with the law.

• Ştefania Simion, Alburnus Maior: The desecretization of the mining exploitation agreement does not depend on RMGC

Like the USL changed several laws within a very short period, it can very well change the law 182/2002 concerning the protection of classified information, to allow for the provisions of the concession license for the exploitation of Roşia Montană to be desecretized, said Ştefania Simion, who represents the Alburnus Maior NGO, which opposes the mining project.

He said: "The license was granted by the ANRM, and was then approved through a government decision.

That license contains information of a job secret nature, which can not be disclosed according to the law 182/2002 concerning secret information, regardless of the will of the parties.

Therefore, the law has to be changed, which, under the current format, do not allow the disclosure of trade secrets.

There is also confidential information, which can not be made public, without the agreement of the parties.

Perhaps the parties have agreed to keeping certain information secret, we don't know whether that is the case".

Also, the NGO is asking the PM to initiated the procedure for including the assets of Roşia Montană on the list of UNESCO, to dismiss Daniel Chiţoiu (who said in the beginning of June, that he is convinced that the Roşia Montană project will begin by the end of 2012 ed. note) and to invalidate the procedures used to assess the environmental impact, in the absence of valid urban zoning plans.