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Civil society groups welcome cancellation of Slovak D1 motorway PPP

Friends of the Earth CEPA (Slovakia) and CEE Bankwatch Network applaud today’s cancellation [1] of the 9 billion euros public-private partnership (PPP) for the first phase of the D1 motorway in Slovakia and urged the new government to change the project’s routing to avoid damaging the Mala Fatra and Velka Fatra National Parks.

The news comes as new Slovak transport minister Jan Figel yesterday refused to extend the deadline for the financial close for the project, which had been delayed by several months by uncertainty over whether the European Investment Bank (EIB) would be able to participate.

“Cancelling this extremely expensive PPP will bring great savings to Slovakia’s public finances and opens up the opportunity for choosing the less environmentally damaging tunnel variant on the controversial Turany-Hubova section” said Lucia Lackovicova of Friends of the Earth CEPA.

After official complaints from NGOs were lodged regarding the damage that the chosen route would cause to the national parks, the European Commission opened an investigation into whether the biodiversity impact assessment of the project was carried out adequately, an inquiry that is still ongoing. Also prompted by NGO complaints, the EIB set further conditions for the Slovak government, which remained unfulfilled.

Meanwhile the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved the project without even waiting for the results of the EC’s investigation, a move that is being challenged by Friends of the Earth CEPA through the EBRD’s internal complaints mechanism.

“Neither the EIB nor the EBRD did their homework properly during the original project appraisal, so it was the task of civil society to raise the alarm,” said Roman Havlicek of Friends of the Earth CEPA. “Without the EC taking up the case and the national authorities cancelling the project for financial reasons, both our public finances and our biodiversity would be in a sorry state. We now ask the government to follow up one wise decision with another and change the route of the motorway to the less damaging tunnel variant.”

Contacts

Roman Havlicek
Friends of the Earth-CEPA/CEE Bankwatch Network
Mobile: +421 908 967633
Email: havlicek AT priateliazeme.sk

Notes for editors

[1] For more on the cancellation see this example from the Slovak press.

Khimki Forest movement leader violently detained in Moscow

Yevgenia Chirikova, the leader of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, has today been forcibly detained by police in Moscow immediately after a press conference on the persecution of activists opposing the construction of a motorway through the Khimki Forest just outside Moscow. [1]

At the time of writing she has been released after several hours of interrogation, but urged to come to Khimki’s police station tomorrow for another round of questioning.

The arrest comes after several tense weeks in which illegal felling of trees began in the Khimki Forest and was opposed by local activists who set up a camp there. Yevgenia herself was physically attacked by unknown perpetrators in the forest on 16 July and suffered minor injuries. After initial success in temporarily stopping the logging, activists were forcibly evicted by police from the area that is now heavily guarded. At an unsanctioned rally in the Khimki forest this Monday approximately 10 more demonstrators were arrested by the police. [2]

Khimki Forest forms part of the planned route of the EUR 8 billion Moscow – St. Petersburg motorway project carried out by a consortium headed by French company Vinci, and potentially financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). However local people argue that routing the motorway through the forest, a popular respite area for local residents in the polluted and densely populated region and home to elks, boars and other animals, is unnecessary as a straighter route variant exists that would most likely cost less.

“Several Khimki activists have recently been detained on the streets and kept in prisons without court decisions”, according to Mikhail Matveev of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest. “Why is the government pursuing the forest defenders and not the illegal forest cutters? They are making activists fight for their own freedom instead of Khimki Forest.”

“The European banks often like to argue that their involvement raises the standards of projects, but there isn’t much sign of it happening here. The EBRD and EIB must either intervene promptly and effectively to stop the human rights violations and change the route, or if they cannot, they must withdraw from the project”, concludes Vladlena Martsynkevych from CEE Bankwatch Network.

For more information

Mikhail Matveev, Movement to Defend Khimki Forest (English and Russian)
Mobile + 7 965 392 28 14

Vladlena Martsynkevych, CEE Bankwatch Network (English and Russian)
Mobile + 38 066 731 26 57

Notes for editors:

1. Video footage of the arrest can be seen on YouTube.

2. Based on newer information the number of arrests is smaller than in a Moscow Times article reporting on the incident.

Groups blast veiled decision-making at European Commission as mining industry revels in rejection of crucial Parliamentary resolution

Environmental organisations have today criticised Commissioner Janez Potocnik for heeding mining industry lobbyists over a democratically elected European Parliament, in failing to open public discussions and rejecting a resolution to ban the use of cyanide in mining processes throughout the European Union.

The resolution, put forward by Parliament in May and one of the strongest resolutions on environmental questions ever passed, calls “on the Commission to propose a complete ban on the use of cyanide mining technologies in the European Union before the end of 2011, since this is the only safe way to protect our water resources and ecosystems against cyanide pollution from mining activities.” [1]

Yet while repeated attempts by civil society groups to be involved in consultations on implementing the ban were stonewalled by the Commission [2], mining industry sources have boastfully circulated news about their active involvement in having the resolution shot down via the European Association of Mining Industries, an industry lobby committee formed to advise the Commission. [3]

“Is this the same EU that encourages citizens participation and active public engagement?” asks Maria Kadoglou from Hellenic Mining Watch in Brussels. “Its a bad start for the new Environment Commission if Mr. Potocnik is disregarding one of the strongest and most necessary environmental resolutions from the democratically-elected representatives of EU citizens.”

CEE Bankwatch Network campaigner Daniel Popov from Bulgaria added, While the Commission is convinced that the existing Mining Waste Directive is strong enough to ensure environmental and health safety from cyanide accidents and active participation of citizens in decision-making processes, the experience from Bulgaria doesnt support these claims. Environmental permits for leaching gold with cyanide are given without adequate public consultations, without proposals to use best available technologies, and without adequate emergency response plans. [4]

“It is appalling that the Commission took into account only one point of view – that of the mining industry lobby – and that there was no space for the arguments of Europeans whose health and environment are being destroyed and threatened by cyanide pollution. How can Mr. Potocnik accept mining companies as the best advisers on environment and health issues?” said Katerina Ventusova from Greenpeace in Slovakia.

“We demand that the European Commission opens its ears to the arguments of all interested parties and immediately starts a transparent and inclusive process of consultation on the implementation of this resolution.”

For more information

Daniel Popov
CEE Bankwatch Network/Center for Environmental Education and Information, Sofia
Tel: + 359 886 818 794

Maria Kadoglou
Hellenic Mining Watch, Brussels
Tel: +30 697 4371 552

Katerina Ventusova
Greenpeace Slovakia
Tel: + 421 905 921 918

Notes for editors

1. ‘The European Parliament resolution of 5 May 2010 on a general ban on the use of cyanide mining technologies in the European Union’ was passed with 488 votes supporting the ban compared to 48 against. It is available online.

2. Environmental organisations first sent a letter to Mr. Potocnik on May 21, asking for a transparent and inclusive process of consultations. No reply has been seen and recent phone calls to Mr. Potocnik’s cabinet have not succeeded in acquiring more information. See the Letter from CEIE and Alburnus Maior on behalf of environmental organisations from Cyanide-free EU coalition (pdf).

3. Mining Journal Online, EC rejects proposed cyanide ban, 05 July 2010

Proactive Investors, EMED Mining permitting boosted as EU knocks back proposed cyanide ban, 05 July 2010

4. One instance in which the implementation of the Mining Waste Directive by a Member State has failed is in the case of the introduction of cyanide at the Chelopech Mine in Bulgaria. Here the Bulgarian court revoked the environmental impact assessment approval, and several other proposals to use cyainde leaching technologies are currently being opposed with all legal means by local communities and environmental organisations. Additionally the risks of transboundary pollution have not been well-assessed and Greek communities living downstream on the Arda and Marica/Evros rivers have not been informed nor consulted, as required by the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context.

New report: EU funds must plug clean energy gap in central and eastern Europe

On the day that the European Commission launches its vision for 2020, its ‘Europe 2020 strategy’, a new report from CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe lays out how improved targeting of EU structural and cohesion billions for energy efficiency and renewables can get the EU – and particularly the new member states in the east – on track to meet and exceed emissions reduction targets for tackling climate change.

The new analysis from CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe [1] points to alarming shortcomings in how billions of EU funds earmarked for clean energy projects in the new member states are being deployed. It calls for big increases in the marginal allocations that the new member states have thus far given to clean energy schemes, citing widespread evidence from the ground that building efficiency schemes are ready to take off if they become more affordable and if EU money is better targeted.Markus Trilling, EU Funds coordinator for Bankwatch and Friends of the Earth Europe, said: “As the central and eastern European economies struggle through the economic crisis, and at the same time know they must play their part in combating the climate crisis, evidence from across the region shows that the low carbon development potential afforded by the EU funds for increased energy efficiency and renewables projects is not being tapped into.

“The EU’s new Europe 2020 strategy sets a course for economic development via green sustainable growth, but these aims need to be backed up by action and, crucially, funds. The European Commission and the member states must mainstream sustainability into all EU policies and ensure that all existing instruments, such as the structural and Cohesion funds, support the development of a sustainable, Europe-wide, low-carbon economy.

“Good practices such as the Green Invesment Scheme in Latvia, where energy efficiency measures are financed through surpluses from selling emissions allowances and combined with financial incentives, need to be promoted throughout the EU, while common obstacles, such as the administrative incapacity of local authorities to process sustainable EU-funded project applications as seen in Bulgaria, must be lowered.”

Today also saw the launch of the website www.sustainableeufunds.org – the site, a new Bankwatch initiative, will be a campaign support centre for NGOs from across Europe that are working to ensure sustainable use of the EU Funds.

For more information

Markus Trilling, EU Funds coordinator
CEE Bankwatch Network/Friends of the Earth Europe
Mobile +420 773557529
Email: markus.trilling AT foeeurope.org

Greig Aitken, Bankwatch media coordinator
Mobile: +420 605 216705
Email: press AT bankwatch.org

Notes for editors:

1. CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe have worked together over the last decade to ensure more sustainable use of EU funds in central and eastern Europe, in this time compiling a range of ground-breaking analyses that have raised the alarm about ineffective, non-sustainable use of EU money in central and eastern Europe.

The new report, Potential unfulfilled: EU funding and Cohesion policy can do more for sustainable climate and energy development in central and eastern Europe is available in pdf format here.

A short video clip introducing the report can be seen below or on youtube.

Transparency allergy reappears at EIB, crisis billions still cloaked in confidentiality

CEE Bankwatch Network today criticised the European Investment Bank (EIB) for adopting a new transparency policy that persists in keeping the final destination of billions of publicly backed money unknown to the public.

Information on loans from commercial banks across Europe, that have received credit lines from the EIB, to final beneficiaries such as small- and medium-sized companies, public authorities, mid-companies, investments funds or equity funds remains unobtainable to the public, under the EIB’s new transparency policy signed off this week by the bank’s directors. This type of lending is a central – and growing – plank of the EIB’s economic crisis response. [1]

Anna Roggenbuck, Bankwatch’s EIB Campaign coordinator, said: “The EIB’s unwillingness to permit just a chink of light on its lending through financial intermediaries is symptomatic of the new policy as a whole. If one of the lessons of the economic crisis is the need for greater transparency in the financial system, then the message has not got through to the EU’s bank.”

Bankwatch’s assessment of the new transparency policy finds that it leaves the EIB as the least transparent of the major public international financial institutions.

Anna Roggenbuck continued: “In spite of a wide range of inputs from civil society groups calling on the EIB to take a more pro-active approach to information disclosure in the interests of the environment and good value for EU money, the EIB’s discomfort with real openness for its lending has again come to the surface.

“Marginal changes have come about from this review of the EIB’s transparency policy, with the result that for the foreseeable future the EIB’s response to the economic crisis will continue to be exclusively about big lending numbers, with far too many gaps in information to allow for a proper assessment of what good, and potentially bad, projects the EIB is supporting in the EU’s recovery efforts.”

A positive step forward in the new policy, that has come about because of the EIB’s requirements to adhere to the Lisbon Treaty, concerns better access to EIB documents where there is now a clear commitment that exceptions to disclosure will be treated narrowly and after analysis of individual cases, an improvement on the EIB’s previous Public Disclosure Policy.

CEE Bankwatch Network also welcomed the refinements made to the EIB’s Complaints Mechanism which provide it with operational independence within the EIB structure and which have made the complaint procedure itself considerably clearer.

For more information

Anna Roggenbuck
EIB Campaign Coordinator, CEE Bankwatch Network
Tel: 004891 8803872
Mobile: 0048 509970424
Email: annar AT bankwatch.org

Notes for editors:

1. The new EIB transparency policy is available at the bank’s website.

Over 20 percent of the EIB’s annual lending goes to financial intermediaries.

 

Chelopech gold mine plans frozen, campaigners call for cyanide leaching to be binned

An announcement from Dundee Precious Metals that it is freezing plans on its investment at the Chelopech gold and copper mine in central Bulgaria because of ongoing legal challenges has been welcomed by the Cyanide-free Bulgaria coalition.

As reported in the Bulgarian media yesterday, [1] Dundee’s announcement comes after more than five years of problems and controversies surrounding the Canadian company’s plans to introduce cyanide leaching technologies in order to extract gold at the Chelopech mine.

With the legal appeals process [2] concerning permits for stage two of the Chelopech mine development expected to last upwards of two years, the Cyanide-free Bulgaria coalition has written to Dundee Precious Metals, encouraging the company to use this hiatus period to conduct further research into technologies safer than cyanide and to carry out improved public consultations.

Daniel Popov, Bankwatch national coordinator in Bulgaria and member of the Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition, said: “With this statement of its intentions, and while we wait for the outcome of the legal processes, Dundee Precious Metals has some time to finally get things right on the Chelopech project. Economically viable solutions that are also safer for human health and the environment are available.

“Dundee Precious Metals should reassess the project by organising much improved public consultation and dialogue with those communities living downstream of the mine that may potentially be affected by the introduction of any new mining technology at Chelopech. We would like to see Dundee abandoning the cyanide approach, and it should devote some energy to carrying out a better analysis of the other available technologies that are better suited to the hydro-geological conditions in Bulgaria.”

The Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition has also pressed Dundee Precious Metals to ensure that certain of its legal responsibilities regarding health and safety measures at Chelopech are not delayed or jeopardised by the company putting the project on hold. [3]

For more information

Daniel Popov
Center for Environmental Information and Education/CEE Bankwatch Network
Tel: +359 886 818 794
Email: dpopov AT bankwatch.org

Notes for editors:

1. See here.

2. Background on the legal actions and the role played by the ‘Cyanide Free Bulgaria’ coalition is available here.

3. The health and safety measures include preventing the discharge of waste waters at the Chelopech mine exceeding the limits of the discharge permit, as well as the strengthening of the wall of the tailings management facility at the mining complex.