Having demanded additional measures to protect the area from polluting underground waters and soil, the Union of Environmental Movements (ZEG) believes its demand has been met with assurances of a better oversight of the water protected area.

The ZEG said Magna had also assured it to ask ARSO to tighten requests for emissions of dust, nickel and other dangerous substances into the air, which it would do within a year, having told the NGO its emissions are actually considerably lower than requested.

ZEG president Karel Lipič said on Friday the NGO's expert board decided against filing an appeal after studying all the documents.

The move comes a day after ROVO, one of the three parties entitled to take part in the procedure of environmental permit approval, filed an appeal on Thursday.

The Regional Environmental Association of Environmentalists (ROVO) complained over water safety legislation and legislation governing procedural matters.

The third party with a vested interest in the investment's environmental impact is the municipality of Miklavž na Dravskem Polju, but Mayor Egon Repnik told the STA this week it had not appealed against the permit.

Austrian-Canadian automotive group Magna Steyr plans to launch trial production in the first months of 2019, but ROVO's appeal means the launch would probably have to be postponed by at least a few weeks.

Commenting on ROVO's appeal, Magna Steyr said yesterday they believed they had met all legal and other conditions for the permit, which they believed had been issued in line with all Slovenian regulations.