Student List Asks Agency to Halt Jama Bor Plan Review

Candidates of the Student List submitted a request on November 9 to the Agency for Spatial Planning and Urbanization to halt the early public review of the Spatial Plan for the Special Purpose Area of the “Jama Bor” Mine, Phase II of the mine’s development. It is the list’s first concrete move against an act of the outgoing authorities, and the student movement announced it.

What exactly are they asking the Agency to do?

The request has two parts. The first is that the Agency stop the early public review of the plan. The second is that it send an initiative to the future Government of Serbia to repeal the Decision on drafting the spatial plan. The students are not asking the Agency to annul the decision itself, but to push the case to a government that has yet to be formed.

The request was posted on the Instagram account “Students in Blockade,” in a post signed “3. Student List - Students Win.” No individual signatories are named.

How did the planning process unfold?

The decision to draft the plan was adopted in August of this year. The Agency for Spatial Planning and Urbanization opened the early public review on October 26, the day after the parliamentary elections. The published reports do not say how long the review runs.

That sequence is the students’ main objection. In their words, the first steps in drafting the plan came at a moment when the outgoing government had clearly lost the public’s trust. The post goes on to say:

We interpret the urgency with which the review was launched ahead of the change of government as an irresponsible move that favors a foreign investor and continues the practice of adapting spatial planning to the individual interests of companies, instead of setting clear conditions and limits on the development of mining.

That is how the list’s candidates assessed the Agency’s move. They added that far-reaching plans of this kind, which carry significant risks for the environment and the quality of life of Serbia’s citizens, should be decided by the new National Assembly and the new Government.

What are the students relying on?

The students state that the mining operations of the company Zidjin Copper in Bor and Majdanpek have, according to the findings of international and domestic organizations and competent institutions, already left irreversible consequences for the environment, as well as for the rights, property and health of citizens. As confirmation they cite numerous court rulings, without giving case numbers.

They also point to statistics showing that the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer in Bor and eastern Serbia is far higher than in the rest of the country. The post does not give specific figures.

At the same time, the list’s candidates limited the scope of the request. The post states:

The intention is not to shut down all mining activity in Serbia, but to bring the operations and conduct of mining companies back within the limits of the law, and to establish personal and institutional responsibility for the damage caused by these companies and by the system that enabled them.

What is still unknown

No response has been published from the Agency for Spatial Planning and Urbanization, from Zidjin, or from the competent ministry. It is also unknown whether the Agency will consider the request before a new government is formed, or when the early public review ends.

As the students framed the request, the future Government of Serbia would ultimately decide the fate of the Decision on drafting the plan, while the Agency decides whether the early public review is stopped in the meantime.