Court says environmental groups’ Paks appeal lodged too late

The environmental permit for the Paks nuclear plant upgrade project is legally binding, the appeals court of Pécs, in southern Hungary, said on Thursday, dismissing an appeal by environmental groups on the ground that they lodged it with the wrong authority, thus missing the deadline.

According to the court’s statement, Greenpeace Hungary and civil group Energiaklub had jointly appealed against the validity of the environmental permit, but

they sent the appeal to the government office of Pest County rather than to the local government office in Baranya County as required, thus missing the 30-day deadline for appeal.

Consequently, the Pécs court dismissed it, saying that “sending the appeal to the wrong address was the complainants’ fault, therefore there is no redress for their missing the deadline”.

The environmental permit for the project to build two new blocks to upgrade Hungary’s sole nuclear plant at Paks has been in effect since October 5, the statement said.

Source: MTI