WRITTEN QUESTION P-2138/99 by Didier Rod (Verts/ALE) to the Council. Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline.
Date: 1999-11-15
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Cameroon, Chad, Council of the European Union, EC opinion, World Bank, oil pipeline, suspension of aid, terms for aid

C 203 E/142

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.7.2000

The Council has repeatedly pointed out that at a first stage it is up to Member States to alleviate both the
social repercussions in the sector concerned and the regional difficulties in border regions which might
arise from the abolition of tax-free sales. The Community instruments available to Member States to
address possible consequences of the abolition of those sales are outlined in a Communication from the
Commission to the Council of 17 February 1999 (1).

(1) OJ C 66, 9.3.1999, p. 6.

(2000/C 203 E/180)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2138/99

by Didier Rod (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(15 November 1999)

Subject: Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline

According to our information, the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project is on the agenda of the next
meeting of the World Bank(cid:146)s executive committee in mid-November. At a press conference of 30 Septem-
ber 1999 Mr Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, expressed his organisation(cid:146)s support for the
project. According to our information, a positive decision to grant the necessary credit to the governments
of Chad and Cameroon can be expected.

In December 1998 Parliament requested a moratorium on the project until certain guarantees concerning
the distribution of revenue, the compensation and transfer of the population concerned, the specific
arrangements for the environmental risks and the actual participation of civil society in the decision-
making process were fulfilled.

What is the Council(cid:146)s position with regard to future developments in this matter?

Is the Council aware of the methods of the World Bank which, according to a publicised internal
correspondence, despatches emissaries as interlocutors to (cid:145)appease(cid:146) critics of the project while at the same
time preparing for its launch at the highest level? Which, at a public meeting of 30 September 1998,
presents as representatives of Cameroon(cid:146)s civil society two persons who are employed as consultants for
the World Bank?

Are there, at the level of the Council, consultations on the position taken by the Member States within the
executive committee? If not, why not? If there are, was the project the subject of consultations? What is
the position of the fifteen Member States regarding the decision to finance the Chad-Cameroon oil
pipeline?

Answer

(24 January 2000)

The matter referred to by the Honourable Member has not come before the Council, which consequently
has no knowledge of the discussions on the financing of the Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline project.

Formal consultation meetings on the position taken by the Member States within the Executive Committee
of the World Bank are not organised by the Council, since not all the Member States have a seat on the
Committee: some are represented by another country which is not necessarily a Member State of the
Community.

Finally, for the reasons mentioned above, the Council as such has no position on the decision to finance
the pipeline in question.