BUDAPEST - More than 20 Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the gates of Hungarian chemicals plant EMV, protesting against what they said was the factory\'s pollution of the environment with pesticides.
Greenpeace activists block Hungary chemicals plant
\"EMV makes pesticides that are banned in Germany and in the United States and pollutes the Babony creek, flowing into the Tisza river,\" Greenpeace Hungary spokeswoman Judit Kalovits said.
\"The goal of our protest is to make EMV stop producing these poisonous chemicals and polluting the water,\" she told Reuters.
It was the second Greenpeace action this year against the EMV site in Sajobabony, northern Hungary. The first was in June.
Protesters included activists from Austria, Romania, Britain and Slovakia as well as Hungary.
EMV environmental manager Ferenc Zakar told Reuters: \"We don\'t understand what they want, their claims are groundless. We produce chemicals fully in line with current environmental regulations.\"
He said the plant produced about 5,000 tonnes of active pesticide ingredient a year, 98 percent of which went for export to western Europe, the United States, South Africa and Australia.
\"If these chemicals were banned in Germany and the U.S., how could we sell them there?\" Zakar asked.
He said EMV had spent 800 million forints ($3.4 million) on environmental protection projects in the past three to four years.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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