Protection of Public Interest by Legal Means – Judgment of the Administrative Court in the “Cable Car” Case

On 12 February 2021, the Administrative Court issued the judgment concerning the lawsuit that was filed by the Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and Environment (RERI), in which it approved the plaintiff’s request and annulled the building permit for the construction of a cable car terminal in Kalemegdan.  The Court accepted the arguments of the plaintiff (RERI) and annulled the decision (building permit) of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, returning the case to the competent first instance body for retrial.

The proceeding before the Administrative Court, initiated by RERI in April 2019 due to an illegally issued building permit, was thus completed. This proceeding is very important for administrative-judicial jurisprudence, but also for the activity of associations that protect general and collective interests. Namely, despite the claims of the sued Ministry, the Public Enterprise (PE) “Ski Resorts of Serbia” and the City of Belgrade (as interested parties to the proceedings), the Administrative Court unequivocally concluded that RERI, as an association that protects collective and public interest, was actively legitimised as a party that has the right to review the decisions of administrative authorities by initiating administrative disputes before competent courts.

With this judgment, the Administrative Court confirmed the facts that were pointed out by RERI in the lawsuit, which were persistently denied by the Ministry of Construction, Traffic and Infrastructure, the PE “Ski Resorts of Serbia” and the city of Belgrade, as well as by certain public officials:

• The Administrative Court recognised the active legitimacy of the association dealing with environmental protection, because the disputed administrative act had violated an interest based in the law;
• In the process of issuing the building permit, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure was obliged, in addition to the Law on Planning and Building, to also apply the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and the Law on Cultural Heritage;
• The term ‘construction of a facility’, which is defined in Article 2, item 30 of the Law on Planning and Building, denotes a set of activities which includes preparatory construction works;
• Together with the request for the issuance of the building permit, the PE “Ski Resorts of Serbia” was obliged to submit an environmental impact assessment approved by the competent authority;
• Based on the documentation that was attached to the disputed building permit, the judgment unequivocally confirmed the fact that the construction of the cable car terminal on Kalemegdan was planned on a parcel of land that is located within a protected cultural heritage property of great importance for the Republic of Serbia (“Belgrade Fortress”) and the archaeological site “Ancient Singidunum”.

This case study was developed by RERI as part of a joint effort by the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), the National Coalition for Decentralisation (NKD), the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and Partners for Democratic Change, to encourage greater citizen participation in the decision- -making process through the project “Citizens Have Power”, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed in this case study are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of USAID.