• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bankwatch

  • About us
    • Our vision
    • Who we are
    • 30 years of Bankwatch
    • Donors & finances
    • Get involved
  • What we do
    • Campaign areas
      • Beyond fossil fuels
      • Rights, democracy and development
      • Finance and biodiversity
      • Funding the energy transformation
      • Cities for People
    • Institutions we monitor
      • European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
      • European Investment Bank
      • Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
      • Asian Development Bank (ADB)
      • EU funds
    • Our projects
    • Success stories
  • Publications
  • News
    • Blog posts
    • Press releases
    • Stories
    • Podcast
    • Us in the media
    • Videos
  • Русский

Home > Projects > Saaremaa bridge, Estonia

Saaremaa bridge, Estonia

Saaremaa is the biggest Estonian island (40,000 inhabitants) and an important recreation destination with some 250,000 visitors per year. Famous for its picturesque landscapes, the island’s vulnerable ecosystems are in danger of being sacrificed for an expensive bridge construction.

This is an archived project. The information here may be out of date.
Learn more about our current projects and sign up for the latest updates.


Image by Carstenwilms - http://bit.ly/2w4HAXW

Stay informed

We closely follow international public finance and bring critical updates from the ground.





Background

Saaremaa is the biggest Estonian island (40,000 inhabitants) and an important recreation destination with some 250,000 visitors per year. Famous for its picturesque landscapes, the island’s vulnerable ecosystems are in danger of being sacrificed for an expensive bridge construction.

The Government of Estonia has been dreaming for more than a decade to replace the ferry connection between the mainland and Saaremaa with a 7 kilometere long bridge or a tunnel. The estimated cost of the bridge is ca 185 million EUR (a tunnel would cost more than twice the amount). The construction would therefore need EU and/or EIB support.

Bankwatch’s member group Estonian Green Movement-FoE, as well as several other Estonian NGOs, are opposing the project, because:

  1. It is far too expensive for a small country like Estonia. The money could be used to more sensibly serve the island’s development. Improving the existing ferry service would cost just a fraction of building a huge bridge.
  2. Due to very thin soil coverage the island’s ecosystems are extremely vulnerable. The bridge route would will have significant impacts on birds and sea mammals and will conflict with an important bird area that is designated as a Natura 2000 site.
  3. Constructing a bridge to the island would significantly increase the volume of tourists to the island (according to some studies by up to 50 percent), putting additional unnecessary pressure on Saaremaa’s ecosystems.

Latest news

No items found

Related publications

No items found

Footer

CEE Bankwatch Network gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.

The content of this website is the sole responsibility of CEE Bankwatch Network and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

Unless otherwise noted, the content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 License

Your personal data collected on the website is governed by the present Privacy Policy.

Get in touch with us

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube