President Nicusor Dan appeared on Monday before the Bucharest Court of Appeal, where he was heard in a civil action brought by a real estate developer seeking EUR 1 million in damages from two associations and several individuals, in connection with a residential project built near Lake Vacaresti.

According to the court portal, the claimant is Da Vinci Edifice SRL, while the defendants are the Save Bucharest Association, the Eco-Civic Foundation and several natural persons, including Nicusor Dan.

'Let me be clear. There was a Detailed Urban Plan, a Zonal Urban Plan and a building permit. In my view - which I reiterated before the court - all three documents are unlawful. The Tribunal and the Court of Appeal have ruled otherwise. In my opinion, they made three errors: one procedural and two substantive, contrary to an already established line of case law. I am not alleging bad faith, but rather a manner of judging. Perhaps the Association also failed to manage the case properly; at the time of the proceedings I was no longer a member, and the Association no longer had people to appear in court, submitting only written conclusions. An association challenged certain documents related to a real estate project which I still consider illegal,' Dan said upon leaving the courtroom.

He explained that he was questioned in his capacity as former vice-president of the Save Bucharest Association, having been sued by the developer.

'At this moment, I believe there are around 50 civil cases in which I am a party. I have not appeared in any of them. I came to this one because I was subpoenaed to testify. That is the difference, and the Civil Procedure Code provides that if a witness is subpoenaed and fails to appear, it is deemed that they agree with the statements made about them. This is why I came - to state that this is not the case. In short, two associations challenged a real estate project, they lost, and now, instead of being satisfied that the court ruled in their favour, although the project is illegal, the developer is seeking to intimidate the associations by claiming one million euros in damages, both from the legal entities and from their governing bodies at the time, including myself. In 2019, when the action was initiated, I was vice-president of the association,' Dan said.

The president added that the land in question lies between Lake Vacaresti and Vacaresti Avenue, and that the project envisaged the construction of a complex of apartment blocks 'simply placed in the field, based on fantasies that roads would be built on private land - a completely harmful approach.' AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eusebi Manolache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)