December 2000
FOREWORD

This Report constitutes the response of the International Task Force for Assessing the Baia Mare Accident (the Baia Mare Task Force or 'BMTF') to the tasks given to us by Commissioner Margot Wallström, with the support of the Environment Ministers of Hungary and Romania, concerning the accidents which occurred at Baia Mare and Baia Borsa in Romania, in January and March 2000. These tasks were to consider:

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Brussels, 23.10.2000 - COM(2000) 664 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

1. INTRODUCTION

The Danube pollution caused by a cyanide spill following a damburst of a tailings pond in Baia Mare/Romania and an accident that occurred in 1998 in Aznalcóllar/Spain where a damburst poisoned the environment of the Coto Doñana National Park have increased public awareness of the environmental and safety hazards of mining activities.

The Tisza River has been called the "heart and soul" of Hungary. Petofi Sándor, the country's most-beloved poet and author of the national anthem, spent years drawing inspiration from its beauty and wildlife.

But following a series of disasters, there were dire predictions for the Tisza. First, a cyanide spill at a gold mine in nearby Romania in January wiped out aquatic life for miles. More than 100 tons of dead fish - carp, tench, bream, and roach - were

Under the auspices of United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Sergio Vieira de Mello and Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss, who is hosting the Forum, ministers

Hydrobiologists introduced some 100,000 fish into the river, the largest tributary of the Danube.

The operation was carried out at the southern town of Mindszent, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the spot where the river flows into Yugoslavia, said Sandor Bognar of the local fishermen's union.

Hungary lifted a total ban on resettling

Geneva, April 19, 2000: According to a report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the 30 January 2000 spill of some 50-100 tonnes of cyanide and heavy metals into the shared river systems of Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia was probably caused by a combination of inherent design deficiencies in the process

"The harm has already been done and this problem is no longer in politicians' hands but in those of the judges," Orban said during a press conference with his Romanian counterpart Mugur Isarescu.

Isarescu's responded that legal action was being taken against the companies that caused the pollution.

In late January, a gold mining complex

BUDAPEST, April 10 (AFP) - Hungarian authorities warned Monday they are facing the "flood of the century" after deluges in Hungary and neighbouring states killed at least eight people and forced hundreds to flee their homes.

Both Hungary and Serbia have declared a state of emergency after torrential rains left thousands of hectares of farmland underwater, while Romanian authorities called a top-level meeting amid warnings of more to come.

The death toll in Romania rose to seven after several days of storms which left floodwaters covering several thousand