TLG - Media, page-12400

"Professor: "May be difficult to stop the mine"

Updated today 19:37 Published today 19:35

Last week, SVT Sápmi reported that the social democrats in Kiruna municipality have decided at a member meeting to oppose the graphite mine in Njunisvárri.

This is what the spokesperson Kenneth Nilsson told SVT Norrbotten at the time.

- We wanted to mark already now, regardless of what the Land and Environmental Court says, we wanted to mark our will in this matter. Regardless of what they say, our opinion on the matter is no different. The environmental issue is extremely important to us who have children and grandchildren in the area. That is one of the main issues, in addition to that, it is also the Sami villages that are losing a great deal of grazing land and migration routes that close off a large area for them along the river valley.

The court has given permission

Last week the Land and Environmental Court announced the verdict in the case where the battery anode company Talga AB applied for an environmental permit in Njunisvárri outside Vittangi in Kiruna municipality. The court grants permission and considers that the company meets the environmental criteria and it is also judged that it is possible to combine the mining operations with the reindeer husbandry. How then does Kiruna municipality's opportunity to stop a mining establishment look if the majority in the municipal council wants it.

It is true that municipal self-government in Sweden is very strong and is established in the constitution, says Maria Pettersson, professor of jurisprudence at Luleå University of Technology, but there are openings.

- Decisions must be made close to the citizens, but it is not without openings. As the Land and Environmental Court has granted permission for the activity and in that permission, the assessment has been made that the area in question is of national interest, both for reindeer husbandry but also for the extraction of valuable substances and if the municipality does not adopt a detailed plan that, for example, promotes this national interests, then the government can step in and instruct the municipality to adopt such a plan and that breaks the municipal planning monopoly. It is one of very, very few opportunities to do so, says Maria Pettersson.

Does the municipality have a greater chance in this case of stopping this mining via the detailed plan?

- I wouldn't think so in the long run, given that this permission has now been announced and the national interests have been determined legally, so I don't think so, answers Maria Pettersson."

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/sapmi/professor-kan-vara-svart-att-stoppa-gruvan