MApN Agreed With Lidl To Move A NATO Radar, In Favor Of A Warehouse Of The Store Chain. But A Judge Disagreed

While Vladimir Putin announces the mobilization of 300,000 people in Russia, in Romania, a judge stops, at the last moment, the deployment of a NATO radar, in favor of a German supermarket chain, the Lidl company.

The move to move the radar was even thought of by the Ministry of Defense and the German company so as not to dislodge a Lidl warehouse. The radar was there since 1998, the warehouse was built in 2021-2022, after the company bought land from the mayor of the commune where the military installation is located.

The court decision of the Dolj Court that stops the move came on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. What do the documents say and what can be seen today, with the help of a drone that the Libertatea team raised on the spot?

The company bought land from the mayor of Pupăză and his wife’s company

3 years ago, Lidl decided to build a logistics warehouse for the Oltenia area. He started looking for a land of about 250,000 square meters in Dolj County. The first time he chose the perimeter of the commune of Ișalnița, located north of Craiova. But Lidl was directed, by various local leaders, to the commune of Cârcea, 11 kilometers southeast of Craiova, where the mayor Valerică Pupăză owned such land.

Lidl starts negotiating with the PSD mayor. The politician immediately sets out, together with his family, to buy enough land from the locals to collect the area required by the German concern. In June 2020, Lidl starts signing a series of documents with Valerică Pupăză, his children and the company Vamagro, owned by his wife. Several preliminary sales contracts appear.

• On June 29, 2020, Lidl Romania signs a preliminary contract with Valerică Pupăză in the amount of 2,513,620 lei (519,000 euros), as an advance for the purchase of 46,936 square meters of urban land located in Cârcea.
• Also on June 29, 2020, Lidl Romania signs a pre-contract with VAMAGRO SRL (sole partner and administrator Mihaela Pupăză) in the amount of 823,0344 lei (170,000 euros), as an advance for the purchase of 78,933 square meters of urban land located in Cârcea.

The publication Indiscret.ro from Craiova devoted long research to this case and revealed a multitude of data. “There was pressure to stop the investigation. I refused,” Cosmin Pretorian, the owner of the publication and the signatory of the articles about the case, told Libertatea.

The mayor promised in the contract, as the seller of the land, that he would secure the building permit

Lidl paid eight million euros for the entire area of ​​land purchased, according to Indiscret.

As written in the sales-purchase contracts with Lidl, the mayor of Pupăză obliged “to take all the steps to obtain the construction permit for the project and the permit for the creation of car access, including large tonnage”. He was also a land seller and commune administrator who issued some of these necessary approvals to the land buyer.

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On June 28, 2021, the Dolj County Council, at Pupăză’s request, issues building permit no. 206 “for the Lidl Logistics Center located on a land area of ​​231,053 sqm, works worth 101,000,000 lei”

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Both the mayor of Pupăză, in the favorable opinion for obtaining the Urban Planning Certificate, as well as the Dolj County Council, did not mention the need for a favorable opinion from the MApN.

The new construction began to be erected in the area of ​​UM 01812 – Cârcea, which, according to military sources, houses a radar integrated into the defense system of the Deveselu Base.

MApN claims a protection radius of 5 km, there are 2 km between the warehouse and the radar

In June 2021, Lidl started construction work, but in January 2022, the company was forced to halt it.

By address 2191 of January 27, 2022, MApN informs the Dolj County Council that “the authorities of the local county administration have the obligation to integrate the areas subject to aeronautical servitudes into the urban planning and land development documentation, under the terms of the law”.

In a straight line, there are less than 2,000m between Lidl and the army radar. And the warehouse building is, in some areas, 20 meters high.

However, the County Council tells Lidl that everything is legal and that it can continue its construction work.

The army goes to court, Lidl stops work, then they agree to move the radar

On March 22, 2022, MapN requests, through two actions filed at the Administrative Litigation Section of the Dolj Court, the suspension of the construction permit and the cessation of works.

In the answer provided to the journalists from Indiscret.ro, in May 2022, MApN explains the requests made in court against Lidl: “Considering the constructive details of the LIDL logistics center (a large building, with a projected height of approximately 20m) and the profile of the land in that area, the discovery area (radio visibility) will be significantly affected in the SOUTH direction from the radar”.

The magistrates of the Dolj Court postponed three times the making of a decision in both cases: the suspension of the works and the cancellation of the authorizations.

During this time, Lidl and Dolj County Council, both as defendants, wanted to find a solution together with MApN. On July 12, 2022, MApN and Lidl reached an agreement, according to a document submitted to the file.

MApN: “Effective Relocation of FPS-117 Radar”

On July 12, Minister Vasile Dîncu signed Order no. 106 by which he delegated “the competence to fulfill certain duties under the responsibility of the Minister of Defense to the deputy of the 76th Research, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade the competence to conclude, as a representative of the MApN, the judicial transaction with the litigating parties in file 3706/63/2022”.

It is about – it is written in the documents – “the arrangement of a temporary operating position of a radar during the execution of the works and the effective relocation of the FPS-117 radar from the structure of the Company 110 Radiolocation Cârcea from its current position to the future location, which will be carried out by the defendants at their expense, with a specialized economic operator approved by the equipment supplier or by the NATO agency.”

The deed was filed with the court. So does the out-of-court settlement between the plaintiff and the defendants.

At the deadline of Tuesday, September 22, the judges of the Dolj Court rejected the agreement between the ministry and Lidl: “The solution in short: Rejects the request of the parties to take note of the transaction submitted at the court deadline of 13.09.2022. Remand the case for further trial. Set a trial date for 18.10.2022. Order the summons of the parties. Pronounced by making the solution available to the parties, through the mediation of the court registry, today 20.09.2022”.

Next comes the trial on the merits of the trial in which the MApN requested the cancellation of the construction authorization for the Lidl warehouse in Cârcea.

What Mayor Pupăză says: “Ask the Dolj County Council. They gave the building permit!”

Searched by Libertatea, on Tuesday, at the Cârcea City Hall office, Valerică Pupăză was on the ground. He agreed to talk on the phone about the radar and warehouse situation. Asked why he did not specify the existence of the radar in the urban planning permit issued for the Lidl warehouse, the mayor of Cârcea commune said that he was not obliged to do so. “The opinion is legal,” he claimed.

He did not comment on the initiative of the Ministry of Defense against the construction that he considers legal, throwing the issue to the county officials: “Go and ask the Dolj County Council. They gave the authorization!”.

Libertatea asked both the Ministry of Defense and the Lidl company what they will do after the court’s decision on Tuesday, which refused their agreement on moving the radar.

In addition, the newspaper asked the Minister of Defense, Vasile Dîncu, what were the arguments behind the decision to move the radar, at the expense of the idea of ​​moving Lidl to the warehouse under construction.

Until the publication of the article I have not received any response. The next term, at the Dolj Court, in the process regarding the legality of the construction permit will be on October 18.

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