Police investigates irregularities at TES 6 in Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia -- The Slovenian police confirmed June 7 that it was looking into allegations of mismanagement at coal plant Sostanj, including serious questions over the building of new lignite block TES 6.

The investigation comes after Slovenian minister of economy Darja Radic declared in April she would personally bring to the attention of the police and public prosecutor information from a confidential governmental report which indicated that there were serious suspicions of corruption and illegalities in the management of the TES 6 project.

CEE Bankwatch Network and Slovene NGO FOCUS are calling on the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to review their plans to provide 650 million euros in loans for the new 600 MW block at Sostanj. The two banks are planning to provide half of the necessary investment to construct TES 6.

„It is startling to see that the EIB and the EBRD have committed over half a billion euro of taxpayers’ money to TES 6 without properly scrutinizing the management practices of the developers,” comments Bankwatch energy and climate coordinator Piotr Trzaskowski.

„The two banks have not listened to warnings that the project would prevent Slovenia from cutting down its greenhouse gas emissions to meet EU 2050 climate goals,” added Trzaskowski. „They have not listened when Slovenian NGOs complained about lack of transparency and about the absence of any evaluation of alternatives to this project. But they are obliged to listen now when the police stepped in: European public money cannot be thrown into projects suspected of corruption and breach of law.”

For more information

Lidija Zivcic
Senior expert, FOCUS association for sustainable development
Tel: +386 15154080
lidija at focus.si

Piotr Trzaskowski
Energy and climate coordinator, CEE Bankwatch Network
Tel: +48 22 892 00 86
piotr.trzaskowski at bankwatch.org

Notes for the editors

1. The EIB has committed to lending 550 million euros and the EBRD 100 million euros for the construction of TES 6. The loans form part of a larger 1.2 billion euros project to replace low efficiency units with a new 600 megawatt (MW) sixth unit, all of them powered by one of the least efficient and most polluting energy sources, lignite. In 2050 projected carbon dioxide emissions from operation of Unit 6 at Sostanj would swallow Slovenia's entire greenhouse gas emissions quota for all the sectors within planned reduction targets for 2050 (if Slovenia cuts emissions by 80 percent – a minimum according to the European targets of 80-95 percent ). It also clearly contradicts EC's recent „Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050”, which calls for almost full decarbonisation of the enery sector by 2050.

2. See CEE Bankwatch Network and FOCUS letters to the EIB (http://bankwatch.org/documents/EIB_letter_govreport_20110504.pdf) and the EBRD (http://bankwatch.org/documents/EBRD_letter_govreport_20110504.pdf)

3. See details about the report of the Slovenian Ministry of the Economy: http://www.vlada.si/si/medijsko_sredisce/sporocila_za_javnost/sporocilo_za_javnost/article/130_redna_seja_vlade_rs_16831/