The conflict for control over the Bicaz Gorges continues between the Szekler communities and the Neamț authorities. Despite long efforts, the authorities in Harghita have not been able to obtain management of the gorge.
The Bicaz keys remain in Neamț county, in the scandal with Harghita county
The latent conflict for control over the Bicaz Gorges continues between the Szekler communities and the authorities in Neamț County. Recently, Harghita County suffered yet another defeat in court in its efforts to take over the famous gorge. The defeat adds to the long list of other unsuccessful legal battles on the issue.
“The High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected as unfounded the review request that Harghita County, through the Harghita County Council, made against the civil decision pronounced by the Târgu Mureş Court of Appeal in the case related to the annulment of the delimitation minutes concluded in 1998 between the representatives of Gheorgheni Municipality, Harghita County and those of Bicaz Chei Commune, Neamţ County”.
The statement belongs to the prefect of Neamț, Adrian Bourceanu, and was made following the decision of the supreme court of Romania on April 25, 2024. The sentence confirms that the border between the two counties remains unchanged, and Cheile Bicazului is located on the territory of the Neamț commune of the same name.
The courts confirmed the delimitation of Bicaz Chei and Gheorgheni
The prefect also brought up a brief history of the long series of lawsuits in which the Harghita authorities were the plaintiff parties. In 2009, dissatisfied with the administrative delimitation between the two localities, the Gheorgheni authorities contested in court a protocol that established the border between the counties, arguing that it would have been in error regarding the previously recognized administrative delimitation. The case was definitively settled in 2020 in favor of Neamț County.
There were other trials, in which the courts confirmed that the administrative delimitation between the commune of Bicaz Chei and the city of Gheorgheni was correctly established, so that the gorge remained under the jurisdiction of Neamț county. Another litigation started in 2022, when the authorities from the neighboring county addressed the Harghita Court with a new request to cancel the minutes.
The trial was lost both at first instance and on appeal, at the Târgu Mureș Court of Appeal. Among the aspects retained in the decision, as mentioned by Prefect Bourceanu, is the fact that “the admissibility of an action to cancel an important administrative act, promoted a quarter of a century after its issuance, seriously affects, at the initiative of an institution public (Harghita county – nn), the security of the civil circuit”.
“In an extraordinary way we ask for the clarification of this situation”
The decision can be appealed
The authorities in Harghita county did not give up and, given the opportunity, appealed the sentence of the Mureș Court of Appeal in November 2023, formulating a review request, which was rejected at the end of April 2024 by the magistrates of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.
However, the last decision is not final and can be challenged by appeal, also at the supreme court. The civil dispute is not only about the Bicazului Gorge, but also about an area of approximately 700 hectares in the area. Borboly Csaba, the president of the Harghita County Council, made this statement in a press conference from the previous year, thus justifying the appeal submitted to the High Court:
“We consider that the decision of the Mureș Court of Appeal (from 2023 – n. ed.) is not clear, we have identified some discrepancies, a contradictory motivation, and through this extraordinary way we ask for the clarification of this situation. There were voices that suggested that the Harghita County Council would have lost this land of almost 700 hectares”, said Borboly Csaba, president of the Harghita County Council.
Beyond these disputes, the official said that the relations with Neamţ are very good, there are joint plans and projects for the area, through the construction of roads and the elaboration of tourist development plans. Gheorghe Oniga, a party to the proceedings through the prism of the position of mayor of Bicaz Chei, explain:
“The dispute arose from a boundary from 1998, work done by the city of Gheorgheni. A report was drawn up, the demarcation was done with a specialized company from Miercurea Ciuc, we also signed, as neighbors, they also signed, also as neighbors and in the end contested their own report, concluded and made by They”.
Tags: Humiliation Hungarians Romanians won case
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