Eldorafo Gold announced today that it will suspend investments in Skouries and probably in Olympiada, too. And instead of trying to find a solution, the Greek government escalates the tension by imposing a fine of 1.7 million euros to Hellas Gold, while European Commission has already sent a message to Athens saying that Greece should attract and keep investments.

As Paul Wright, company’s CEO, told journalists on Tuesday Eldorado Gold is cutting 600 jobs from its goldmine in Skouries in the next three months, while another 500 jobs in the Olympiada project were under threat if the company failed to receive the necessary installation license by the end of March.

After Eldorado Gold’s announcement of suspending its works, the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Panos Skourletis and Yannis Tsironis, imposed a fine of 1.7343 million euros to Hellas Gold for 21 violations taking into account the relevant recommendations of the Environmental Inspectorate.

In a statement, the ministry points out that the violations had been checked and ascertained during 2012 -2014 period, but the political leaders and governments of that period preferred to ‘forget’ the existence of the relevant reports at the expense of the Greek residents, the workers and the environment.

“Therefore, the new government had to take specific measures, even though it shouldn’t, for the obvious reasons, so as to confirm the specific violations and impose the applicable fines” says the statement.