Such a request was submitted by the defendant in the criminal case, the company “Grigeo Klaipėda“, regarding the possible contradictions between the European Union and national legal acts and the compliance of the legal acts regulating environmental protection with the Constitution.
A request has been submitted to the court to initiate an appeal to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling, which includes ten problematic issues related to contradictions between EU and national legislation.
As the company previously announced, if the request is granted, the CJEU will be asked to clarify whether, according to EU law, environmental damage can be caused only by the fact of released pollutants, without conducting a real study of their effects.
According to the company, until now all institutions, scientists and international experts who investigated the pollution incident of “Grigeo Klaipėda” have not identified the fact of damage. It is assumed in the case based on the calculated nature and quantity of released pollutants.
Clarification will also be requested regarding the methodology for determining the amount of environmental damage operating in Lithuania.
If the court decides to apply to the CJEU, the examination of the main case of pollution of the Curonian Lagoon in the Šiauliai District Court may not be stopped, but the examination would stop if the appeal is made to the CT.
The court examining the case will also consider whether to apply to the Constitutional Court regarding the conformity of the provisions of the Environmental Protection Law applied in the case under consideration with the country’s Constitution.
In the case regarding the damage to the Curonian Lagoon, the lawyers representing the Department of Environmental Protection said earlier at the meeting that the country’s legal acts are aligned with European Union documents and no additional clarifications are needed.
In the Curonian Lagoon pollution case, accusations of abuse, falsification and disposal of documents and violations of environmental protection rules were brought against the joint-stock company “Grigeo Klaipėda” and 14 other current and former employees of this company.
In the criminal case that received a great response in the society, in which the indictment consists of more than 300 pages, the shareholder and chairman of the board of Grigeo Group Gintautas Pangonis, the current manager of the Klaipėda company Tomas Eikinas, three previous managers of this company and other persons were recognized as defendants.
This large-scale case contains more than 20,000 data of documents, interviewed suspects, witnesses, conclusions of various experts, additional documents and other data relevant to the investigation. The Environmental Protection Department determined the property damage caused to nature, and filed a civil lawsuit against the company for more than 48 million euros.
#Grigeo #Klaipėda #case #court #announce #appeal #Constitutional #Courts
