The Greek government imposed on Tuesday 1.7 million euros in fines to Eldorado Gold, the Canadian-based mining company operating four mines in Greece.
The fine was imposed by the Environment and Energy Ministry just before Eldorado Gold CEO Paul Wright spoke in a press conference on Tuesday and said that the company is considering stopping its investment in Greece. Wright said that the decision to withdraw is due to the Greek government’s “openly confrontational” stance and criticized Environment and Energy Minister Panos Skourletis for “politicizing” the investment issue.
The Greek state imposed a total of 1,734,300 euros in fines for 21 environmental violations for the 2012-2014 period.
Wright said that Eldorado Gold has followed all environmental regulations so far. He also criticized the Ministry for announcing the fine just before the press conference in order to create impressions, as the Skouries mine has been a controversial issue in the past year.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis calls on Tsipras to intervene on Skouries issue
New Democracy’snewly elected leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis chose the mining company issue as the topic of his first official statement as president Greece’s main opposition party. In a public statement, he called Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to intervene in the dispute over the Skouries mine and the Eldorado Gold investments.
The New Democracy President spoke with an Eldorado Gold delegation about the company’s decision to halt the Skouries project and suspend hundreds of workers because the Greek government does not issue the necessary permits.
“On the Skouries issue, the obsessive policies of the SYRIZA government drive away the biggest investment in the country, leaves 600 people without jobs and another 500 to follow, stops the creation of another 500 jobs in 2016 and discredits Greece internationally as an investment destination,” Mitsotakis stated.
“I call on Mr. Tsipras to intervene and resolve the problem immediately. I honestly do not understand what he [Tsipras] would say to the foreign investors he will meet at Davos next week with the Skouries mine closed,” he added.
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