WRITTEN QUESTION E-3377/03 by Elisabeth Schroedter (Verts/ALE)and Inger Schörling (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Oil extraction by Russia in the Baltic Sea, near the Curonian Spit (D6 oil deposit).
Date: 2003-11-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Baltic Sea, EBRD, EU relations, Lithuania, Russia, environmental impact, environmental law, extraction of oil, impact study, loan, national park, oil pollution

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The Commission used the occasion of the European Council on 6 November 2003 in Rome to express its
concern at reports of ongoing human rights abuses. The Commission continues to stress the need to end
the culture of impunity for perpetrators of human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict.

The Commission also expressed its concern at the closure of camps for internally displaced persons in
Ingushetia. The Commission considers it of the utmost importance that internally displaced persons are
not left with no option but to return to Chechnya. This is particularly so, in view of the fact that the
security situation in Chechnya has,
if anything, deteriorated since the constitutional referendum and
Presidential elections, and in view of the poor humanitarian situation. On this latter point, the Commission
regrets that Russia has not yet taken concrete measures to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid (cid:1) by
providing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with access to United Nations Very High Frequency
(UNVHF) communications, by ensuring security for aid workers (the case of kidnapped humanitarian aid
worker Arjan Erkel was specifically raised) and by allowing the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to open
an office in Nazran, Ingushetia (cid:1) despite repeated requests to do so.

The Commission will continue to use relevant Union/Russia political dialogue meetings to call on the
Russian authorities to improve the situation in the north Caucasus.

The Commission provides support to NGOs in the region via the European Initiative for Democracy and
Human Rights, with the aim of supporting the development of a functioning civil society. A number of
training programmes have also been implemented in cooperation with the Council of Europe.

(2004/C 88 E/0662)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3377/03

by Elisabeth Schroedter (Verts/ALE)
and Inger Schörling (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(14 November 2003)

Subject: Oil extraction by Russia in the Baltic Sea, near the Curonian Spit (D6 oil deposit)

The Russian oil company LUKoil will begin oil extraction from the D6 oil deposit before the end of 2003.
D6 is located only 22 km from the Russian coast and 6 km from the Lithuanian border. Oil spills would
endanger the Curonian Spit in Russia and Lithuania, and possibly the Finnish and Swedish coast as well.
The Curonian Spit is a World Heritage site, a national park and will be part of Natura 2000 after
Lithuanian accession. It is already receiving LIFE funding. The area is known for its sensitive environment.
Tourism, dependent on clean beaches, represents a major economic factor in the area. A transparent,
international EIA has not been conducted by the Russian authorities. The second Northern Dimension
Action Plan approved in mid-October calls for cooperation with Russia in order to comply with the Espoo
Convention and implement cross-border cooperation on environmental issues.

1.

Does the Commission believe the project to be environmentally safe?

(a)

If so, how can the Commission explain the fact that an international EIA, involving Lithuania, has not
been conducted and that the national EIA has been highly secretive?

(b)

If not, will the Commission assume its responsibility for an appropriate impact assessment for a
project affecting a Natura 2000 area by supporting the Unesco World Heritage Committee in insisting
on an international, transparent EIA with international experts, as prescribed by the Espoo and
Helsinki Conventions?

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Is the Commission using all available channels to make this demand, such as Helcom and the CBSS
2.
as well as the different fora for cooperation with Russia established under the PCA, e.g. the Sub-Committee
on Energy, Environment and Nuclear Safety? How will the Commission take the outstanding opportunity
that the D6 project provides to activate the second Northern Dimension Action Plan?

3.
Is the Commission aware that a loan granted to LUKoil by the EBRD in 2000 has been used to
resume the D6 project without any conditions regarding the application of the Espoo and Helsinki
Conventions requiring an international EIA? What action has the Commission taken to stop funding of
LUKoil until international law is applied? Is the Commission aware that the EU could stop this funding
using its majority on the Board of Directors of the EBRD?

4.

Is the EU planning to import oil produced from the D6 oil platform?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(19 December 2003)

1.
The Commission shares the Honourable Members’ concerns about Russia’s plan to start prospecting
in the sensitive Baltic Sea environment of the Curonian Spit without having conducted an
for oil
Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) that meets high international standards. The Commission is of the
opinion that only an EIA could provide adequate detailed data concerning the possible impact on current
and future Member States and environmental safety. Therefore, the Commission will combine its efforts
with current and future Member States in attempting to convince the Russian Federation that, for the sake
of the safety of all Baltic Sea States including Russia, a transparent EIA meeting high international
standards should be conducted and all relevant precautionary emergency measures should be taken.

Moreover, in a report to both Lithuanian and Russian specialists on 5 November 2003, experts from the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage Center
recommended that, before Russia starts drilling and pumping oil on the Curonian spit,
it should
implement the following prerequisite steps: an environmental
impact and operational risks study, a
bipartite emergency liquidation plan and a monitoring system.

The Commission also notes that Russia is not yet a Party to the United Nations/Economic Commission for
Europe (UN/ECE) Espoo Convention concerning trans-boundary impacts on environment.

2.
The issue has been discussed within the framework of the Helsinki Commission (Helcom). All Baltic
Sea States and the Community, represented by the Commission, are Contracting Parties to the Helsinki
Convention (1). Steps have been taken to ensure an appropriate exchange of
information, and the
delegation of the Russian Federation has submitted details of their plans that were circulated to all Helcom
Heads of Delegation in July 2003. In addition, there are ongoing contacts within a joint Russian-Lithuanian
Commission.

The Commission will press for an early meeting of the sub-committee on environment under the Union-
Russia Partnership and Co-operation Agreement in order, inter alia, to discuss this matter further.

The Northern Dimension Action Plan provides an operational framework setting out strategic objectives.
One of the priority objectives is to work on the full respect of international conventions on environment.
The Action Plan states that all partners should enhance their commitment to the implementation of the
Helcom Copenhagen Declaration on maritime safety. However, since the Northern Dimension is, from a
legal standpoint, a non-binding initiative its success depends on the active and willing participation of all
actors involved.

3.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loan to LUKoil in 2000 was for
medium-term working capital and, as far as the Commission knows, there is no connection between this
and the D6/Curonian spit project (a project which requires a different type of long-term financing).
Moreover, the EBRD reports that the 2000 loan represented a minimal part of LUKOil’s total indebtedness
at that time. The 2000 loan is now in the repayment phase: USD 62,5 million has been repaid on time,

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and the whole facility is to be fully repaid by mid/end of 2004. There are no firm new LUKoil projects in
the Bank’s pipeline and more specifically, no projects involving oil field developments.

The Commission remains committed to the application by the EBRD of the highest environmental
standards for its investment projects. In this context, it is important to note that EBRD involvement has in
the past improved the environmental practices of the companies benefiting from the Bank’s financing,
including LUKoil.

In the Union, the choice of crude supply sources is made autonomously and independently by each

4.
refining or purchasing company.

(1) Relevant Helcom Recommendations in this respect are in particular Recommendation 18/2 (of 12 March 1997) on
offshore activities and Recommendation 19/17 (of 24 March 1998) on Measures in order to combat pollution from
offshore units. Following a request made by the delegation of Lithuania, a recent meeting of Helcom Heads of
Delegation (Helsinki, 27/28 October 2003) agreed to review these recommendations in cooperation with relevant
experts from the OSPAR Commission and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP).

(2004/C 88 E/0663)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3380/03

by Christos Zacharakis (PPE-DE)
and Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(14 November 2003)

Subject: Representations to the Egyptian authorities to implement the principles of democracy and the

protection of human rights

In 1989 the Egyptian Government arrested in Suez and sentenced to death three Greek seamen from the
‘Thanassis’ on charges of smuggling, even though their guilt was never proven. After pressure from
prominent European personalities, these sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.

This affair received widespread media coverage, and many Greek radio and television programmes were
broadcast on the subject. A book was also published describing the unwarranted sentences handed down
on them and the wretched conditions of detention in Egyptian prisons. Two of the three seamen have
already died in Egyptian prisons, while the third, Konstantinos Kastanias, is seriously ill and is slowly dying
in al-Qanatir prison.

The European Parliament has repeatedly expressed the need to strengthen democracy in Egypt (Resolutions
P5_TA(2002)0378, P5_TA(2002)0410) and has referred to the specific case of the wretched conditions of
detention of Konstantinos Kastanias, calling on the Egyptian authorities to permit him to be transferred to
Greece on humanitarian grounds (Resolution P5_TA-PROV(2003)0192, 10.4.2003). It will also be recalled
that Article 2 of the Cooperation Agreement between Egypt and the European Union calls for respect for
human rights and the principles of democracy and that Commissioner Chris Patten made a statement
before the plenary of the European Parliament on 5 September 2002 urging Egypt to adopt the highest
judicial and democratic standards if is to achieve its developmental and political ambitions. Particularly in
view of its cooperation with Egypt and the above statement, will the Commission say what immediate
measures it intends to take to prevail upon Egypt to heed the European Parliament’s request and allow
Konstantinos Kastanias who is dying to be transferred to Greece, in accordance with the above European
Parliament Resolution P5_TA-prov(2003)0192 of 10.4.2003?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(11 December 2003)

The Commission is aware of the detention of Mr Konstantinos Kastanias in an Egyptian prison for drug
trafficking and his sentence to death (subsequently commuted to life imprisonment). The Commission is
aware that on humanitarian grounds, the Egyptian authorities in 1996 repatriated Mr Nikos Zagelidis, one
of two other persons charged with the same sentence.