Press Releases
[Press release] EIB warned not to take detour from EU law in Slovakia
 Construction on the D1 motorway near Vrtizer, Slovakia |
Ivan Lesay, Bankwatch's national coordinator in Slovakia, said: “The EIB should not be financing projects that violate the rights guaranteed by basic European legislative documents, such as the Amsterdam Treaty and European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In its operations within the EU, the EIB is obliged to heed EU directives first and foremost, and cannot merely comply with national legislation which, as is the case with this project, has appeared recently on the Slovak statute book in controversial circumstances.”
The Slovak Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications is applying for an EIB credit [1] to finance selected D1 motorway sections that are to be built under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme. The use of PPP schemes in motorway projects was approved by the Slovak government in September 2007, with the introduction of new legislation granting “Extraordinary measures in the preparation of selected motorway constructions”.
Among other things, the new law allows for highway construction on lands that have not been bought out or expropriated. Investors are thus entitled to settle compensation issues for land where the motorway is built even after the construction is finished and formally approved.
Pavol Žilinčík, legal expert and director of Via Iuris - Center for Public Advocacy, said: “In practice this allows for the possibility that property owners will be compensated only several years after the motorways in question have been opened to traffic. This violates the right to the peaceful enjoyment of ownership guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and is also in stark contradiction with the Slovak constitution.”
Roman Havlíček, Friends of the Earth-CEPA coordinator, added: "Already with one of the D1 sections that could receive EIB financing, the villagers of Šútovo are unwilling to accept the sharp practices that are trying to route the road through their village. They are not prepared to negotiate a price for the expropriation of their properties, yet this new law allows for the bulldozers to move in regardless.”
The same legislation discharges Slovakia's National Motorway Company of any obligation to perform the so-called state expertise that is used to assess the economic efficiency and cost justification of any public work costing more than SKK 200 million (EUR 6.64 million). In recent years the Slovak road sector has been blighted by well-documented anti-competitive behaviour from investors, some of whom have submitted bids for the D1 PPP construction. [2]
Ivan Lesay said: “If the government is happy to turn a blind eye to conducting state expertises, we face the risk of repeated cartel agreements as well as major highway constructions that turn out to be economically absurd. This kind of random approach to major infrastructure development should not be backed by European money in the shape of an EIB loan, especially in the current economic climate.”
For more information
Roman Havlíček, EU funds project coordinator, FoE-CEPA
Tel.: 00421 908 967 633
Email: havlicek at changenet.sk
Ivan Lesay, CEE Bankwatch Network national coordinator, FoE-CEPA
Tel.: 00421 918 628 575
Email: lesay at changenet.sk
Notes to editors
[1] The loan is currently being considered by the EIB and appears in its project pipeline at the EIB website.
The EIB's credit could cover up to 50 percent of total project costs. The estimate of the total costs is EUR 1.63 billion.
[2] On December 23, 2005, the Anti-monopoly Office of the Slovak Republic issued a ruling in which it stated that “seven construction companies coordinated their bids in a public tender for construction of a D1 motorway section, thereby breaking the law on competition.”
Among the seven companies convicted of a cartel agreement are Skanska, Doprastav, and Mota-Engil which – as members of two consortiums – are bidding for the D1 motorway section construction for which financing is sought from the EIB credit. Click here for more information.
CEE Bankwatch Network gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.