WRITTEN QUESTION E-2979/96 by Angela Kokkola (PSE) and Yiannis Roubatis (PSE) to the Commission (8 November 1996)

Subject: Petrochemical pollution in the Aegean

The Retkin Company is establishing and preparing to operate a petrochemicals unit on Turkey's Aegean coast (opposite the island of Lesbos). The South-Eastern Mediterranean is already a heavily polluted region, and there is a real danger that the waters of the Aegean may be further polluted by this move. The concern triggered by the operation of this unit is due to the fact that the petrochemicals unit already operating in the region of Ali Agha is polluting the local marine ecosystem, and protests by ecologists and other bodies to the Turkish authorities have had no effect.

What measures does the Commission intend to take to protect the Aegean where fishing and the tourist industry are mainstays of the economy from petrochemical pollution?

Does it intend to call on the Turkish authorities to draw up a study of the environmental consequences of operating a unit of this kind, since they affect the economy and the ecosystem of a Member State of the Community?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-2940/96, E-2979/96 and E-2980/96 given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission (17 January 1997)

The Commission is aware of the pollution problems in the Aegean and the attendant environmental risks caused by the Turkish-based industrial plants to which the Honourable Members refer.

The Commission would stress that the EC-Turkey Association Council, in its resolution of 6 March 1995 on the extension of cooperation between the Community and Turkey, considered schemes to develop and strengthen environmental protection absolutely vital.

Under the MEDA programme, the Turkish authorities have submitted to the Commission a project aimed at assessing and monitoring marine, air and soil pollution along the country's coastline. The project has been - and is being - discussed by Turkish and Community experts. Whether it is funded will depend on the availability of resources under the 1997 budget.

As a contracting party to the Barcelona Convention and its protocols, Turkey is bound to honour its obligations, assuming that they are relevant to this case.

It is, however, for the Turkish government alone to take the decisions needed to tackle the pollution threatening the Aegean ecosystem.

The Honourable Members refer to ECU 4,5 million loaned to Turkey for the purposes of promoting clean technologies and funding the Gökova and Yutagan thermal power stations. The Commission would point out that the European Investment Bank (EIB) has no record of the loans in question.

The EIB's lending in Turkey is part of financial cooperation under the New Mediterranean Policy, a horizontal Community policy. Such loans are intended to fund investment in energy, transport and telecommunications projects of interest to one or more Mediterranean countries and the Community, and in projects to protect the Mediterranean environment. The latter enjoy a 3% interest rate subsidy financed by the Community budget. In Turkey, as in the other Mediterranean countries, the EIB attaches considerable importance to the environment.

Of loans totalling ECU 339 million made by the EIB in Turkey over the period 1992-1996, ECU 170 million went to four environmental projects. They concern the construction of a sewer network and sewage treatment plant in Antalya, a sewer network in Ankara and an industrial waste collection and processing system in Kocaeli province, and the installation of desulphurization equipment at the Yeniköy power station.

With regard to the environmental impact of establishing a petrochemicals plant on the Asia Minor coast opposite the island of Lesbos, Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment applies only to the Member States. Turkey is not a signatory to the Espoo Convention on environmental impact assessment in a transboundary context, which provides for the assessment of projects involving petrochemical products.

As for the project to build a nuclear power station in the Akkuyiu region, the Turkish authorities launched an international invitation to tender for the construction of such a plant on 17 December 1996.