WRITTEN QUESTION E-1570/01

by Marie Isler Béguin (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(29 May 2001)

Subject: EU aid programme for the victims of Chernobyl

The after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster are now becoming most alarmingly apparent in Belarus. Radioactive fall-out, which amounted to 70 %, has severely contaminated a quarter of its territory and its ecosystem, and the effects thereof will be felt for several centuries. Two million people, including 500 000 children, are condemned to live on contaminated land because the Belarus Government has neither the material resources nor the political will to improve the situation. The pathologies caused by that environment and by farm products contaminated by radioactivity are increasing exponentially in terms of quantity and seriousness, in particular taking the form of cancers and malformations from babyhood.

As a means of expressing its displeasure at President Alexander Lukashenko's autocratic regime in Belarus, the European Union has cut back its aid to that country and now runs just one TACIS programme of political support for civil society.

Does not the Commission feel that there are grounds for running, locally as well as in the Member States, a second TACIS programme of health care and medical aid for the people living in the contaminated regions of Belarus, one which would concentrate on the manufacture and prescription of the pectin-based medicinal products advocated by V. Nesterenko, as a display of EU solidarity with and assistance for civil society as much as a humanitarian necessity?

What funds is the Commission planning to release for these millions of civilian victims of the ecological disaster which occurred when the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded, the effects of which will be felt for at least three hundred years and which has cost Belarus alone an estimated USD 235 billion?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(3 September 2001)

The Commission shares the concern expressed by the Honourable Member about the consequences of the Chernobyl accident on the population of Belarus.

The European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), which was active in the areas worst affected by the Chernobyl disaster in the early 1990s, allocated more than 8 million to operations in support of those affected by the accident. Emphasis was given to alleviating the health effects of the accident, including the need for specialist medical monitoring and care. However, in the line with the mandate agreed with the Council, the core function of ECHO is emergency relief which is no longer appropriate to the current situation in the affected areas of Belarus.

However, the political context makes large scale Tacis support very difficult.

In addition to our work with civil society we have been providing assistance to Belarus on a number of projects dealing with the health, economic, social and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident, inclunding:

- construction of an industrial plant for the packaging of iodized salt;

- treatment of contaminated forestry waste;

- social and economic rehabilitation of contaminated areas through the direct involvement of the population in the decision-making process;

- establishment of an early warning system to provide protection in the event of any future nuclear accident.

In addition, many joint research activities have been conducted together with Belorussian institutes on the assessment of the health, economic, environmental and social consequences of the Chernobyl accident; this research was most intensive in the first half of the 1990s but has continued at a reduced level since.

The Commission is considering future policies on assistance to tackle a problems arising from the accident. However, it is, for the time being, impossible to provide precise indications on the budget that might be available for such activity.