The public finds the decision of the Convention on Espoo in respect of the Belarusan NPP too mild

Representatives of Belarus’ and Lithuania’s ecologic community believe that the decision of the parties to the Convention on Espoo as of June 10 in regard to the Belarusan NPP to be unreasonably mild.

The respective statement was spread by the representatives of the public-participants of the parties to the Convention in Geneva on June 2-5.

Representatives of Belarusan ecologic public organizations (Public Association “Eco house”, “Green Network” society, which unites chief Belarus’ ecologic organizations) and Lithuanian community (the Union of farmworkers and Greens, Lithuania’s party of Greens) assume that the meeting of the parties to the Convention on Espoo had enough reasons to demand the suspension of the realization of Belarusan nuclear power plant project and to review the decisions taken in regard to the breaches of the provisions of the Convention.

As Tatsiana Novikava, who represented “Eco house” at the meeting of the parties to the Convention on Espoo, commented, there were enough reasons to introduce much stricter measures: Espoo Convention Implementation Committee recognized that Belarus violated the provisions of the Convention in regard with the realization of Belarusan NPP project as of March 14, as well as the fact that Belarus is actively constructing its NPP, which is inadmissible during the consultations and investigation on Espoo. As the ecologist noted, in a similar case that happened in Ukraine one publication in a newspaper about the premature construction of the object was enough to stop it. “However, the situation we observe now is absolutely different – the meeting of the parties to the Convention recognized that Belarus made a final decision about the construction of the NPP, recommended the Committee to evaluate this decision and recommended Belarus to continue consultations with Lithuania, as well as attended to the fact of the continuing and very active construction of the Belarusan nuclear power station. On the one hand, it happened because the Committee claimed there was no time to evaluate the decisions currently made by Belarus; and on the other – because Belarus demonstrated its readiness to cooperate and improved its legislation, which resulted in abolition of some recommendations; thus, the parties to the Convention were unprepared for taking strict measures”.

 However, despite the mild decision of the parties to the Convention, according to the representative of “Eco house”, on June 5 Belarus demonstrated its unwillingness to compromise, its intractability and made the parties take the decision by voting, which happened for the first time in the history of the Convention.

Let us recall that Belarus ratified the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context on November 10, 2005. Espoo Convention Implementation Committee accepted a complaint of Lithuania against Belarus in relation with the violations of the requirements of the Convention while constructing Belarusan NPP.