EU neighbourhood

Ahead of an expected loan decision by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for the TANAP pipeline, non-governmental organisations raised concerns over financing a project of this size in a country under martial law where the human rights situation is deteriorating continuously.

A group of 39 international NGOs sent a letter to the Directors of the World Bank (WB) today urging the Bank not to finance the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP). TANAP is the Eastern part of the Southern Gas Corridor, a 3500 kilometres-long chain of gas pipelines from Azerbaijan to Europe.

The WB Directors will consider on December 20th a loan to the Turkish company Botas for the construction of the pipeline.

The Southern Gas Corridor, a string of pipelines meant to bring gas from Azerbaijan into Europe, is presented as a panacea for all ills and is set to benefit from some of the biggest loans in the history of European public banks. But as this report reveals, Europe's flagship energy project is set to benefit a host of companies and individuals with a particularly shady track record. Several companies contracted to build the Southern Gas Corridor have a worrying history of corruption.

Ahead of the Asian Development Bank's board meeting where a loan to the Shah Deniz gas expansion project in Azerbaijan is to be discussed, a group of NGOs ask the ADB board to postpone a decision and align the ADB to the practice of other IFIs involved in financing the same and related gas projects.