Environmental permit is an administrative document that lays down measures for the protection of all components of the environment: air, water and soil. In the process of issuing the urban permit, the investor for the project which is considered to have or may have a negative impact on the environment, must first obtain an environmental permit. Issuance of the permit is regulated by the Law on Environmental Protection and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Environmental Protection, art. 54-74 or art.17-29 (Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH No. 33/03 and 38/09)

Environmental permit is issued for new installations, before they are put into operation, and prior to the issuance of the environmental permit plants must go through the procedure of environmental impact assessment. The procedure for issuing permits for existing plants and facilities that have worked before the entry into force of the Law on Environmental Protection, is prescribed by specific regulations. The operator of such plants and facilities shall prepare the activity plan prior to applying for the environmental permit, with measures and deadlines for gradual reduction of emission (pollution) and to comply with best available technologies (BAT). Plan of activities is assessed by an expert commission, and if it is positively evaluated, the competent ministry issues a permit with a validity period of five years. In the process of environmental permitting and assessment of studies on the impact on the environment, the competent ministry informs and invites the public to a public hearing.

Although the deadline for obtaining environmental permits for plants of ArcelorMittal Zenica expired in October 2008, the permits were issued with considerable delay, and without public hearing. For some plants, public hearings were held, but no one from the ministry responded on our observations, nor did we get answers to our questions sent on 17.2.2009. The activity plans and environmental permits did not contain the "zero state" of environmental pollution, so it is impossible to evaluate the effects of implemented projects.

Eco forum has performed an independent analysis of the implementation of measures in the Action Plan, based on information available to us. With the aim of deeper analysis, we organized Roundtable on "Environmental permits ArcelorMittal Zenica 2009-2014", on June 26 2014. The round table was attended by Eco Forum activists, representatives of ArcelorMittal Zenica, Zenica Municipality, the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Government of Zenica-Doboj Canton and the Inspection Directorate of FBiH.

Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism has formed a commission to produce reports on the implementation of certain projects in the plan of activities on the basis of which they issued the environmental permit for plants of ArcelorMittal Zenica. This report was scheduled to be completed in May 2013, but it was completed only at the end of 2013, and will serve as a basis for developing new environmental permits. Of the anticipated 200 measures, 186 of them were realized, but costs and complexity of 14 unrealized measures far exceeds implemented measures. The most expensive and most complex projects are still in the implementation phase.

Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism has prepared a draft of the new Law on Environmental Protection of FBiH, which provides for the issuance of IPPC. In addition to truly integrated water and urban planning consent being integrated in the permit, as required by adjusting the BiH legislation with the EU legislation, it is envisaged that an integrated permit includes more plants and facilities. For ArcelorMittal, this would mean issuing only one, integral (or more precisely, collective) environmental permit. Eco Forum considers that this approach is not acceptable and will strive that this provision of the law is changed before the adoption.

Representatives of the Ministry are at the Round Table said that in issuing new environmental permit they will not conduct a public hearing. Eco forum will insist yet to be included in the process of issuing the permit. Given that five environmental permits expire in November / December 2014, and the remaining 3 in November 2015, the Ministry announced that it will issue a joint permit probably mid-2015, to the expected adoption of the new Law on Environmental Protection.

Eco Forum addressed complaints to the Federal Ministry of Tourism and the environment in the context of public hearings about the draft of the new Law on Environmental Protection of FBiH in October 2014. The most important observations relating to the public participation in renewal of permits and the integrity of the permit.

If the plant / installation which has an environmental permit has not fulfilled all obligations from the permit, the only situation provided is "shutdown and closure of the plant," without an alternative solution. We already have the case of such facilities (ArcelorMittal Zenica), where obligations from prior consent are not fulfilled, and the issuance of new ones is planned. Who is responsible for non-compliance or for eventual closure? These are too serious issues, environmentally, economically and socially to be left incomplete without the participation of the public.

The term "integrity" in the draft of the new Law is completely misinterpreted. Instead of integrity in terms of the various permits, the concept of "collective license" is introduced for complex operators, without a clearly defined way of determining how the "collective" operation is determined. Collective permit should be issued only for technological units, regardless of location or operator.

At the end of 2014, the environmental permit for five plants, two of which are big polluters (blast furnace and BOF converter) have already expired, and none of the authorities reacted to it. Therefore, Eco forum decided on law suits against the responsibles.