GabčÃkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia)
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| Press Release 1997/9 |  |
19 September 1997
Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros Project
(Hungary/Slovakia)
The Court will deliver its Judgment on 25 September 1997
The Hague, 19 September. The International Court of Justice will deliver its Judgment in the case concerning the Gabcíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia) on Thursday 25 September 1997, at 10.00 a.m. and not on 24 September as it had been announced earlier (No. 97/9).
The case, which was brought in 1993 by Special Agreement between the neighbouring States of Hungary and Slovakia, concerns a longstanding dispute about the construction and operation of a major system of dams on the river Danube, under a treaty signed in 1977 by Hungary and Czechoslovakia. It has been the subject of widespread public interest and concern.
The case raises important issues of treaty law and environmental law, and of the responsibility of States, as well as of the law of international watercourses. The Parties devoted considerable argument to the scientific and environmental implications of the project. In no previous case of the Court have environmental problems been so fully pleaded and considered.
Earlier attempts to resolve the dispute, some of them involving the European Union, had not been successful.
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NOTE FOR THE PRESS
1. The public sitting will be held in the Great Hall of Justice of the Peace Palace, The Hague, The Netherlands. Members of the Press will be entitled to attend on presentation of an admission card, which may be obtained upon application. The tables reserved for them are situated on the far left of the public entrance of the courtroom. Please note that no portable telephones or other audible electronic devices are allowed in the Great Hall of Justice.
2. Photographs may be taken at the opening, during the first five minutes of the sitting; and also for a few minutes towards its end. Filming for television purposes is authorized; advance notice to be given as per paragraph 6 below.
3. In the Press Room, located on the ground floor of the Peace Palace (Room 5), the reading of the Court's decision will be relayed through a loudspeaker.
4. After the close of the sitting, a Press Communiqué will be distributed in the Press Room (Room No. 5).
5. Members of the Press who wish to make telephone calls may use the public telephones in the Post Office in the basement of the Palace.
6. Mr. Arthur Witteveen, Secretary of the Court (Press and Information Matters) (tel. No. 31-70-302 23 36), will be available to deal with any requests for information by members of the Press or for making arrangements for television coverage.