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Brussels, 15 April 2026 - Civic Initiative “For Green Pampas” from Osijek has received unanimous support from various political groups in the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament, against concretisation the banks of the Drava River.
At this morning's session, on the basis of a petition sent to the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament (PETI) by the Citizens' Initiative “For the Green Pampas”, the Committee asked the European Commission to formally comment on the project, in accordance with the regulations in force and the demands of citizens. In addition, the Committee will contact the competent authorities in Croatia and request additional clarifications about the project and its impact on the environment and quality of life in Osijek.
”The unanimous support of the Committee sent a clear message, which is that an official statement on the project is needed before any concreting of the Drava bank, instead of just the existing elaboration done by the developer himself. Any project involving sensitive areas such as Natura 2000 must be based on a full, independent and transparent environmental impact assessment. I expect the European Commission and the competent authorities in Croatia to ensure that European Union directives are respected because Osijek deserves the Pampas as a green space for socializing, and not as another concreted area that will only intensify urban warming in the city.” declared Gordan Bosanac, a member of the Podemos party in the European Parliament and a member of the Committee on Petitions, who supported the representative on the Committee today in front of the European Greens.
This decision comes because the existing study, which gave the project a positive assessment, was made by the same firm that designed the project. This requires further comment on the project in line with European regulations and citizens' demands, which was agreed by all the Committee's political groups when they unanimously supported the initiative.
Pampas is a part of the Drava coast which is a favorite bathing place and a place for socializing the citizens of Osijek and is a green oasis of urban space, and this move would pour seven to 10 thousand tons of concrete and turn this oasis into an urban thermal island.
The Green Pampas Initiative asked the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament (PETI) with an official petition in November last year to verify the legality and compliance of the Obaloutvrda project on the right bank of the Drava River on the section between 22.5 and 24.5 km of the river and the Višnjevac — Osijek embankment. The initiative warns that the project, implemented by the public company Hrvatske vode, envisages concreting about one kilometer of natural river bank within the Natura 2000 network area and along the border of the Mura-Drava Regional Park, without conducting a full environmental impact assessment (EIA). Thus, it turns out that the same investor receives EU support for renaturalization only a few kilometers upstream, while downstream, with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Green Transition, concretes the same coast.
“All the clubs in the Committee have unreservedly supported us, recognizing that this is a cross-party issue of quality of life and our future, because it is being built in three nature protection zones: Natura 2000, Mura-Drava Regional Park, UNESCO Pentalateral Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube. This is a question of consistency and the willingness of citizens to actively decide about their community. In the Initiative we are not against construction, investment and development, but we want it to be in line with new sustainable approaches and the circumstances of warming”,he pointed out Mirko Andrić ahead of the “For the Green Pampas” initiative, which took part in the Committee meeting today.
The petition called on the European Parliament to recommend a temporary suspension of the project until its compliance with European regulations is established, and to recommend that the project be amended in line with the Nature Restoration Law and the Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle, which seeks solutions based on nature and climate resilience.
