EU neighbourhood

The Vreoci community from the Kolubara mining basin requests from the EBRD to suspend the loan arrangements for the Kolubara lignite mine due to the constant and increasing violations of human and property rights by the Public Company Mining Basin "Kolubara" - Lazarevac.

This expert review of Ukraine's Nuclear Power Plant Safety Upgrade Program, that's to be financed by Euratom and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development shows that some of the measures included in the SUP are necessary for the lifetime expansion of the plants and not for their regular functioning until the initially planned term.

The EBRD's Board of Directors approved the Ombla hyrdopower plant project on 22 November 2011, before an assessment had been carried out regarding the project's impact on a proposed Natura 2000 site. In addition the project is being carried out on the basis of an Environmental Impact Assessment study from
1999, whose content may not fully reflect the requirements of EU legislation in this area.

The letter criticises the environmental assessment of the Nuclear power plants safety upgrade programme (SUP) in Ukraine. It concludes that the assessment insufficient and does not fully elaborate the objectives and consequences of the SUP.

The loan agreement between Ukraine and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the Rivne-Kyiv High Voltage Line project (connected to the controversial "Second Backbone Corridor") included significant parts of the project that were not assessed in the obligatory environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) prior to project approval.