Bankwatch

Home > Archives for Press release

Press release

Bulgarian parliament hears the anti-cyanide concerns of thousands

Today at the Bulgarian parliament’s Petitions Committee three public petitions related to controversial mining initiatives were heard, in a process described by ‘Cyanide Free Bulgaria’ campaigners as encouraging and not before time.

Two of the petitions – one of 14 400 signatures supporting a legally binding cyanide ban across Bulgaria, the other ‘For a clean Maritza River’ aiming to prevent industrial pollution from mining – had been overlooked for two years, but following re-submission to the Petitions Committee in November last year were finally granted a hearing in the committee. Daniel Popov, Bankwatch national coordinator in Bulgaria and member of the Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition, said: The fact that these petitions have been heard in the Bulgarian parliament’s committee at all represents good progress for the thousands of people and hundreds of communities across Bulgaria that face the prospect of mining involving lethal chemicals taking place in their areas, next to their water sources, and usually without consultation.

There is growing momentum for a cyanide ban, such as the ban now in place in Hungary, and the Petition Committee will hopefully take on board the arguments presented today and issue a report that will back a cyanide ban in Bulgaria.

The third petition to receive a hearing today was submitted against the granting of a permit to Canadian mining firm Dundee Precious Metals for drilling and investigating gold deposits in the Rhodope mountains. The petition was submitted by an Initiative Committee from neighbouring villages, the biggest of which Chepelare is a small-scale ski resort.

Dundee Precious Metals is the promoter of several major mining investments in Bulgaria that seek to use cyanide technology. The approval of the environmental impact assessment for Dundee’s mining project at Chelopech was cancelled in November last year by the Supreme Administrative Court following a complaint submitted by the Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition, although currently Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment is appealing this decision. [1]

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. Recent developments in the cyanide free Bulgaria campaign are available in this December 2009 press release.

Concerns mount over cyanide rush in Bulgarian mining projects, European Commission urged to intervene

Two Bankwatch groups and the members of the Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition outlined today at a press conference in Sofia the ongoing problematic issues hanging over the proposed introduction of controversial cyanide leaching at the Chelopech mining project and with the Bulgarian government’s handling of the environmental procedures for wider use of cyanide in mining projects across the country.

The Center for Environmental Information and Education has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission [1] related to infringements of EU law associated with the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) permitting process for the cyanide installation at phase 2 of the Chelopech project, being promoted by Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals that has already received two loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) totalling USD 25 million for phase 1 of the Chelopech project, as well as a USD 4.5 million loan from the EBRD for its operations in Armenia. [2]

Daniel Popov, of the Center for Environmental Information and Education and Bankwatch national coordinator, said: “The IPPC permitting for the use of cyanide technology at the Chelopech mine took place without due consultation with the concerned public downstream from the mine which we believe to be in breach of EU law, the Aarhus Convention on public participation and also Bulgarian legislation. Given the risks involved both for people and the natural environment with the use of cyanide technology, we call on the Commission to fully assess the extensive evidence presented in our complaint.”

Representatives of the Cyanide Free Bulgaria Coalition also raised the deficiencies of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure in Bulgaria which is subordinated to political decisions and economic justification, and thus fails to secure the protection of the environment and human health.

The Chelopech Mining cyanide project is one of two recently approved investments in cyanide leaching of gold in Bulgaria and at least two more proposals are at the preparation stage. A judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court accepted the arguments of the Coalition and cancelled the approval of the Chelopech Mining EIA on November 4 this year.

Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath, Bankwatch’s Balkan coordinator, said: “In January it will be 10 years since the Baia Mare accident in Romania that compelled the European Commission to improve the EU’s mining safety standards, bolstering accident prevention and accident response. Then Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrm remarked that ‘there is the need to further embrace a culture of openness, transparency and participation in this region.’

“The permitting process for the Chelopech Mining cyanide project has breached national and international legislation demonstrating that decision makers in Sofia still regard transparency and public participation as a nuisance, rather than as a prerequisite for securing environmentally and socially responsible investments.”

The Chelopech case in Bulgaria is one of three gold mine projects financially backed by the EBRD that features in a new report from CEE Bankwatch Network entitled “Between a rock and a hard place – How local communities pay the cost of EBRD-financed gold mining projects.” [3]

Pippa Gallop, Bankwatch’s Research coordinator, said: From a cyanide spill injuring hundreds of people in Kyrgyzstan to land subsidence in Armenia and deficient public consultation in Bulgaria, EBRD-financed gold mining projects have had unenviable results so far.

“If the EBRD wants to change this it needs to stop financing the use of cyanide in countries with weak regulation, establish no-go zones for mining projects, such as glaciers, protected areas and ancient forests, and ensure that it only finances projects which have been subject to public consultation in line with national legislation and the Aarhus Convention.”

For more information

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

Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath
Bankwatch Balkan coordinator
Tel: +359 899 876 095
E-mail: fidankab AT bankwatch.org

Notes for editors

1. The formal complaint to the European Commission is online and can be downloaded here.

2. More background information about the Chelopech project – phases 1 and 2 – can be seen at Bankwatch’s web page dedicated to this project.

3. The new Bankwatch report Between a rock and a hard place – How local communities pay the cost of EBRD-financed gold mining projects is available to download here.

The report has been prepared to input into the EBRD’s development of a new sectoral policy on its mining projects.

New video testimonies from Bulgarian women – “Mining re-sisters fighting against mining injustices” can be seen at Friends of the Earth International’s youtube channel.

Violations at EBRD power lines project spark clashes between police and villagers in Ukraine


A project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Odessa region of Ukraine has this week been the scene of clashes between 300 police officers and villagers resisting the routing of high voltage power lines through their village. The EUR 25.8 million Odessa High Voltage Grid Upgrade project is being implemented by Ukraine’s national electricity company Ukrenergo in violation of agreements with the EBRD, the international public development bank and backer of the project. [1]

Signed off by the EBRD in 2005, the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) deemed that the power lines were to bypass the village of Usatove. However, Ukrenergo’s plans to proceed with the routing of the power lines in very close vicinity to local houses and streets have led to months of resistance by local inhabitants, which came to a head on Monday this week as police arrived in the village to free up space for project construction workers (see the embedded video). [2]

Clashes on Monday (see video below) left five women seeking medical assistance. With ongoing police backing, Ukrenergo has continued its construction efforts in the village, working overnight, as villagers reacted by blocking roads. This morning five local men were beaten and arrested on the site.

Yury Urbansky, of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine and Bankwatch National coordinator, said: “Ukrenergo’s blatant disregard for the terms of the EUR 25 million EBRD loan is shocking and is provoking fear and discontent in Usatove’s inhabitants. The company is seeking further EBRD assistance for another transmission lines project which is at the public consultations stage and also involves controversial routing and public safety concerns.

“But events in the last few days show clearly that the company is unwilling to consider the voices of local people, and it has apparently little concern for the European standards of project implementation that an EBRD loan is supposed to provide. The EBRD should be halting any further project negotiations with Ukrenergo until the village of Usatovo is safe from harm.”

The South Ukraine Transmission Project is the other major transmission line project promoted by Ukrenergo currently and being considered for funding by the EBRD. The draft EIA for the project is now open for public discussion, though Bankwatch has already alerted the bank to consultation shortcomings. [3]

For more information

Yury Urbansky
National Ecological Centre of Ukraine/CEE Bankwatch Network
Tel: +38050 512 3222
Email: urbik AT necu.org.ua

Notes for editors

1. EBRD project documentation can be viewed at the EBRD website.

2. See also a Ukrainian TV news reports and video from the site showing the violent clashes here.

3. EBRD project documentation for the proposed South Ukraine Transmission Project can be viewed here.

A Bankwatch press release outlining the public consultation deficiencies to date can be viewed at the Bankwatch website.

Via Baltica – Another landmark victory for Polands nature, environmentalists remain vigilant

Last night’s decision by the Polish Council of Ministers on a new routing for the Via Baltica expressway [1]has been welcomed by campaigners from CEE Bankwatch Network, BirdLife International, OTOP – BirdLife Poland and other environmental groups as major progress for the conservation of Poland’s unique nature and represents a significant step in the right direction towards the proper implementation of Polish and European environmental legislation.

Nonetheless, the groups that have campaigned on a range of highly controversial major road plans in north-east Poland for some years now stressed that the new decree on the Via Baltica motorways and expressways’ network does not mark the end of their efforts to save a number of valuable sites – protected under the EU’s Natura 2000 network – from road construction plans in the region. [2]

According to the decree, the Polish part of the Via Baltica expressway – part of the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) – will have to be constructed in line with the recommendations made by experts and the findings of a Strategic Environmental Assessment that has taken several years to complete.

Such an outcome has been demanded by the European Parliament and Bern Convention as well as by environmental groups. This routing of the road via Lomza, confirmed now by the government, is not only the environmentally sound option but it is also valid on economic, traffic and social grounds. The decision means that the expected stream of heavy good vehicles will not have negative impacts on three Natura 2000 sites: the Biebrza Marshes, and the Knyszyn and Augustow Primeval Forests. However, it does not bring an automatic halt to current road construction work inside the Knyszyn Forest or other environmentally harmful road development plans in north-east Poland.

Marta Majka Wisniewska, Polish national coordinator for Bankwatch, said: “This decision from the Council of Ministers does not close the case of egregious road development in north-east Poland. There is a further need to change other strategic documents, in particular the current list of investments under the Operational Programme ‘Infrastructure & Environment’ and the Polish proposal on TEN-T revision. And, of course, the devil will be in the final implementation of today’s positive outcome.”

Malgorzata Gorska, Casework Officer of OTOP (BirdLife in Poland), commented: “As these road developments have been proceeding at high speed, Natura 2000 sites like the Knyszyn Forest and the Biebrza Marshes are still under threat. Our task is to ensure that all environmentally harmful road projects along the old routing of the Via Baltica, as queried by the European Commission, are halted or modified. With the new route for the Via Baltica corridor settled there is no need to continue with these large scale projects on the old route which will needlessly damage Natura 2000 sites.”

For more information

Marta Majka Wiśniewska, Polish Green Network, Warsaw
Email: mwisniewska AT bankwatch.org
Tel: +48 602888143

Malgorzata Gorska, the Polish Society for the Protection of the Birds (OTOP – BirdLife Poland), Trzcianne
Email: malgorzata.gorska AT otop.org.pl
Tel: +48 605072963

Notes for editors

1. Key Natura 2000 sites in north-east Poland are under threat of damage by a series of road projects on the so called ‘Via Baltica’ international road corridor, which will link Helsinki to Warsaw via Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The corridor upgrade is taking place as a series of separate individual projects (an approach commonly referred to as ‘salami-slicing’) rather than being planned in a strategic way. Polish NGOs have been campaigning on the Via Baltica case for over seven years, including referring the case to the Bern Convention and in 2006 submitting a complaint to the European Commission.

In March 2009 the Polish government decided to save the famous Rospuda valley in north-east Poland from destruction by one of the road projects. This particular section of Via Baltica had been routed through the Natura 2000 site “Augustow Forest” in north-east Poland, which includes the unique mires of the Rospuda valley. While the NGOs welcomed this decision they remain extremely concerned that the Polish authorities are continuing to progress other damaging ‘Via Baltica’ road projects such as the Białystok-Katrynka and Katrynka-Przewalanka Upgrades which will damage Knyszyn Primeval Forest.

For more background information about the Via Baltica controversies in Poland, see the Via Baltica campaign website.

2. The EU Birds and Habitats Directives require Member States to designate Natura 2000 sites to ensure the survival of the EU’s most threatened animal and plant species and their habitats. The ‘Natura 2000’ network of the EU covers about 18% of the EU’s territory, and aims to reconcile human activities with nature conservation. Together with the Habitats Directive, the Birds Directive forms the cornerstone of EU action to address the decline of biodiversity, which in combination with climate change is seen as the most pressing environmental problem of the 21st century. EU governments have committed to halting the loss of wildlife by 2010, and to implementing its nature legislation.

Natura 2000 sites are not fenced-off areas, but encourage sustainable and nature-friendly land-use and business. Article 6 of the Habitats Directive describes the process that needs to be followed for any plan or project to assess whether it would have a significant impact on the site. Such plans or projects, which could include mining, infrastructure or housing development, can generally only be authorised if they do not have a negative effect on the ecological integrity of the site. In other words, the species and/or habitats for which the site was selected as Natura 2000 site must be maintained in a good status.

Public consultations short-circuited for major Ukrainian power project, EBRD urged to stand up for communities and the environment

A major power transmission project in Ukraine that seeks a EUR 175 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to facilitate the export of electricity from Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant across protected nature sites in the south of Ukraine is violating the EBRD’s procedures on public consultations, according to Bankwatch member group National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU).

On a recent fact-finding mission to the region, NECU representatives uncovered a highly haphazard approach from the project promoter Ukrenergo – Ukraine’s national power company – to a public consultation process already supposedly underway for two months, with a further two months still to run.

Yury Urbansky, Bankwatch’s national coordinator in Ukraine, said: “In several key locations in the region where these power lines will pass, we found big gaps in the availability of environmental impact documentation concerning the project. A major project like this one that seeks EBRD support is supposed to fulfill the bank’s public disclosure requirements to the full. Yet not only did we arrive at several sites where the relevant documentation was incomplete but we also faced active resistance from local officials unwilling to provide at least some of the required materials.”

A NECU letter to the EBRD details these public consultation failings from Ukrenergo and urges the bank to ensure the restarting of the process in line with its requirements. [1] Public hearings about the project are scheduled to take place at the end of this month.

Ukrenergo hopes to receive this EBRD loan to realise a 750 kV power line that will run between the Zaporizka nuclear power plant (NPP) and the Kakhovka substation. The main goal of this project, according to NECU, is outlined in Ukraine’s controversial energy strategy up to 2030, namely to deliver the export of domestically produced electric power abroad and to expand Zaporizkaya NPP from 6 to 8 power units.

Yury Urbansky continued: “There is a lot at stake with this project, including for local communities and the Lower Dnieper National Park, a reserve rich in biodiversity that is set to become a protected area. Public consultations on these high voltage power lines, with all the available project impact documentation, are absolutely vital. Ukrenergo has been talking up its prospects of securing the EBRD financing by the end of the year, but it has embarked on a reckless path to meet this timetable. The EBRD must insist on its standards being respected, and should take note of the corners already being cut by its potential client.”

For further information

Yury Urbansky, NECU/CEE Bankwatch Network
Email: urbik AT necu.org.ua
Tel.: +38 050 5123222

Notes for editors

1. The NECU letter is available at the Bankwatch website.

ArcelorMittal continues to pollute and uproot peoples lives


ArcelorMittal needs to move beyond good intentions on environmental and social improvements and turn words into deeds. Despite its rhetoric on social responsibility, the company continues to destroy the environment, risk peoples lives and displace local communities, according to a new report launched today by the Global Action on ArcelorMittal coalition [1] to coincide with the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Luxembourg.

Comprising case studies from seven countries ranging from the Czech Republic to India and South Africa, the report also reveals new problems emerging around ArcelorMittal’s iron ore mining operations in Nimba County, Liberia, including unclear resettlement plans for local people, a lack of permanent employment from the mine, threats to the Mount Nimba Nature Reserve, and a questionable donation of 100 pick-up trucks.

“According to ArcelorMittal the trucks were meant for ‘agricultural purposes’, but they have ended up being driven around Monrovia, Liberias capital city, with tinted windows by members of the Liberian legislature,” according to Silas Siakor from Friends of the Earth Liberia.

“ArcelorMittal is failing to live up to its promises to Liberia,” he continues. “The lack of transparency in the management of the Community Development Fund promised to impoverished Liberian communities and threats to the Mount Nimba Nature Reserve are of serious concern when one reflects on ArcelorMittal’s track record in other countries.”

In eastern Europe and South Africa, local people report that there has been little progress in reducing the high levels of air pollution from old steelmills acquired by ArcelorMittal.

“The company’s approach in South Africa has been to organise meetings with local communities to talk about reducing pollution rather than actually doing it,” said Samson Mokoena, Coordinator of the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance in South Africa.

“ArcelorMittal’s eastern European plants, such as those in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kazakhstan, have benefited from more than USD 600 million in taxpayer-backed loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation for environmental improvements in the last ten years. Yet there is little evidence of any absolute reduction in pollution. In Bosnia-Herzegovina it has taken three and a half years just to make an Environmental Action Plan, which has not yet been implemented,” said Pippa Gallop of CEE Bankwatch Network.

“We’ve been monitoring ArcelorMittal’s environmental and health and safety investments in Kazakhstan for several years now and nothing seems to have changed. The city of Temirtau is still choked with air pollution,” said Dana Sadykova of environmental NGO Karaganda Ecological Museum. “Thirty-five miners died in two separate incidents in ArcelorMittal’s Kazakh mines during 2008 and in spite of the EBRD-backed health and safety improvement project it is totally unclear what safety investments have been made.”

“Predictably ArcelorMittal is now using the economic crisis as an excuse to delay some of its environmental investments in the Czech Republic, but this is unacceptable,” said Jan Srytr of Environmental Law Service. “Protection against toxic pollution is not an added extra to be enjoyed during the good times a healthy environment is a fundamental right. The company should use this period of lowered production to install improved pollution control equipment and more efficient technologies.”

For more information

To arrange interviews with:

– Silas Siakor, Sustainable Development Institute, Liberia
– Sunita Dubey, groundWork USA, Co-ordinator of Global Action on ArcelorMittal
– Dana Sadykova, Karaganda Eco-Museum, Kazakhstan
– Samson Mokoena, Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance

Please contact:
Darek Urbaniak, Friends of the Earth Europe,
Tel: +32 495 460 258 (Belgian mobile)
Email: darek.urbaniak AT foeeurope.org

or
Paul De Clerck,
Friends of the Earth International/Friends of the Earth Europe
Tel: +32 494 380 959
Email: paul.de.clerck AT foeeurope.org

Ostrava, Czech Republic:
Jan Srytr, GARDE programme of the Environmental Law Service, Czech Republic
Tel: +420 775 154 087
Email: jan.srytr AT eps.cz

Omarska, Bosnia-Herzegovina:
Branko Andjic, Eko-Pokret Omarska, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Tel: +387 654 945 89
Email: brankoandj AT gmail.com

Cernavoda 3 + 4 nuclear reactor, Romania:
Jan Haverkamp
Tel: +32 477 790 416
Email: jan.haverkamp AT greenpeace.org

Notes for editors:

[1] The new report ArcelorMittal: Going Nowhere Slowly: A review of the global steel giant’s environmental and social impacts in 2008-2009 reviews the company’s environmental and social impacts during the year since the coalition published its first report on the company in May 2008.

It is available on the websites of Global Action on ArcelorMittal and Bankwatch.

The new report includes case studies from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, India, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Romania and South Africa. In addition to pollution problems from existing plants the report includes case studies on two new planned investments. ArcelorMittal’s plans to build two giant steel mills in the Indian states of Orissa and Jharkhand are heavily opposed by local tribal people, who would be displaced from their land. In Romania, the company is planning to participate in the controversial Cernavoda 3 and 4 nuclear reactors using Candu-6 technology, which critics such as Greenpeace claim is outdated and dangerous.

Global Action on ArcelorMittal is a network of community and environmental groups from around the world who are working to get ArcelorMittal to invest in pollution prevention and health and safety at its steel mills and coal and iron ore mines. It includes CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth. For more details see the network’s website.

Last years report In the wake of ArcelorMittal can be found on the Bankwatch website.