The bill, which includes regulations on energy and mining fields, was presented at the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

AK Party Zonguldak Deputy Ahmet Çolakoğlu said, “We have miners who have obtained mining licenses but are not producing. They may have fulfilled the form, conditions and paperwork and may find themselves entitled to have their licenses extended, but we are putting an end to this with this bill.”

Later, the General Assembly began discussing the entire bill, which includes regulations regarding energy and mining.

“Renewable energy investments are of vital importance”

MHP Antalya Deputy Abdurrahman Başkan said that the bill is not just a legislative update, but an important step in terms of Türkiye's energy security, natural resource management, environmental awareness, improvement of the investment climate and development goals.

Emphasizing that the regulations in the proposal aim to evaluate Türkiye's natural resources from a local and national perspective and to create production models that will provide the highest benefit from these resources, the President said that as the MHP, they support this approach and consider the enactment of the proposal as a gain for Turkey based on local production, environmental sensitivity and strategic planning.

Referring to the regulations regarding EIA included in the proposal, the President spoke as follows:

“With the regulation, the decision that 'EIA is not required', which undermines the effectiveness of the EIA process, is now being abolished and everyone is subject to EIA. With the law, public institutions are required to submit their opinions within 3 months at the latest in EIA processes, and a provision has been made that if no response is given, the opinion will be considered 'positive'. With this understanding, which is based on production and environmental balance, not bureaucracy; will an investor expect an answer every three months, will their file be kept on the shelf, such questions will be left behind. This step expresses the determination to pave the way for investors while protecting the environment.”

Stating that “Renewable energy investments are of vital importance in reducing Türkiye’s external dependency on energy,” the President said that with the proposal, the zoning plans, licenses and building permits of wind and solar energy-based projects could be carried out directly by the relevant Ministry.

AK Party Zonguldak Deputy Ahmet Çolakoğlu said that with the proposal, with the new rehabilitation provisions, a rehabilitation fee equal to the business license fee will be collected from the license holder.

Çolakoğlu stated that the state contribution rate in gold mines will also be increased with the proposal. Stating that there are miners who have obtained mining licenses but do not produce, Çolakoğlu said, “We have miners who have obtained mining licenses but do not produce. They may have fulfilled the form and conditions, the paperwork procedures and they may find themselves entitled to the extension of their licenses, but we are putting an end to this with this bill. We included this article in our bill so that these mines do not remain idle and public resources are used more efficiently.”

Referring to the discussions on olive groves, Çolakoğlu said that olive trees between one and three thousand years old can be transported. Expressing that there are many examples of this in the world, Çolakoğlu said, “When you consider the existence of 20 million olive trees in the province of Muğla, which concerns this bill, the number of trees in the area in question is 4 per thousand of the number of olive trees in Muğla.”

On the other hand, the TBMM General Assembly will not meet on Friday, July 4, which was previously decided to work with the Advisory Board Decision accepted by the General Assembly. Since the quorum was not found in the votes made, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly Celal Adan closed the session to meet on Tuesday, July 8 at 15:00.