Official request for the Rosia Montana site to be back on UNESCO World Heritage List

The Government in Bucharest will resume the procedure to sign up the Rosia Montana site on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Culture minister Bogdan Gheorghiu announced the notification will be filed today.

PM Ludovic Orban had announced on Tuesday that his Cabinet plans to register the Rosia Montana as a World Heritage site on the UNESCO World Heritage List, with consultations with the representatives of the Romanian state in the litigation at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to start soon.

“Following analysis and consultations we decided to resume procedure to register Rosia Montana site on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We’ll file the request today as to make the deadline so that it can be discussed within the UNESCo sitting due in China this summer”, the minister said.

February 1, 2020 was the due date until the Romanian Government could ask for the Rosia Montana file to be put on the agenda of the UNESCO Committee sessions this summer.

“We decided to not delay this action, even if the deadline is February 1, because it is not just a priority in the PNL ruling programme, but particularly because the Culture Ministry’s duty is to defend the interests of the national cultural patrimony”, added Bogdan Gheorghiu.

More than one and half year ago, the previous PSD Government stopped the procedure to included Rosia Montana site in the UNESCO patrimony, arguing that Romania was still on trial, at that time, with Gabriel Resources, the majority stakeholder of Roșia Montană Gold Corporation.