The National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU) recently criticized the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for violating EBRD procedures on public consultations and not providing full information about a major power transmission project in Ukraine.
“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,” according to the group, which is part of the CEE Bankwatch Network.
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.”
An October 12 NECU letter to the EBRD details the allegations and urges the bank to restart the consultation process.
By Toby McIntosh
Filed under: IFTI Watch