Slovenia's Greenpeace wishes to strengthen the voice of their Croatian colleagues by gathering support with the S.O.S campaign. Nina Štros, the head of the organization in Slovenia, says the oil project brings many risks. The Adriatic Sea is specific as water flows from the south to the north. That means that an accident would also threaten Slovenia.

In the beginning of January Croatia issued the first exploration concessions. They allow five oil companies to explore 10 regions, mostly located in the central and southern Adriatic.

Environmentalists warn that Croatia's study about the effects on the environment is insufficient. The tourism risks are underestimated. The supervision over any possible environmental damage is left over to the oil companies. A public debate on the issue was otherwise encouraged by the Slovenian Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, which received Croatia's project study last week. By demanding the documentation Slovenia has somewhat slowed down Croatia's contract procedure with the oil companies.

Nina Štros also warns of EU's hypocrisy. She says that with the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the EU was now in search of new energy sources. At the same time the more developed EU countries are moving away from fossil fuels and investing into clean energy, while fossil energy sources are "still good enough" for Europe's periphery. Štros added that these countries probably don't have a good enough sense of what can be socially acceptable.

A. K. K., MMC;
translated by K. J.