MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Botnia mill case resumes hearings in The Hague next September

Argentina and Uruguay to meet again in The Hague in September

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the United Nations' principal judicial organ, informed that it will hold public hearings in the case concerning the two Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay) from Monday 14 September to Friday 2 October 2009, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court. After the hearings, The ICJ will have to suggest measures to stop the conflict between both countries.

Of the two mills, only Finland’s Botnia went ahead and is currently in full production since the second half of 2007. The second project, from Spain’s Ence, was relocated further south on the River Plate, and is still in the blueprints.

In May 2006, Argentina charged Uruguay with having unilaterally authorized the construction of two pulp mills on the River Uruguay without complying with the obligatory prior notification and consultation procedure. Argentina maintained that the authorization, construction and future commissioning of these mills jeopardized conservation of the environment of the river and of the areas affected by it.

Argentina's Application was accompanied by a request for the indication of provisional measures requiring Uruguay, inter alia, to suspend the authorizations for the construction of the mills and halt building work on them pending a final decision by the Court and to refrain from any other action which might aggravate or extend the dispute or render its settlement more difficult.

On 29 November 2006, Uruguay submitted its own request to the Court for the indication of provisional measures on the grounds that, since 20 November 2006, organized groups of Argentine citizens had blockaded “a vital international bridge over the Uruguay River”, that this action was causing it enormous economic damage and that Argentina had taken no steps to put an end to the blockade.