CYIL vol. 7 (2016)

369

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ

DO THE EUROPEANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT…

Lithuania agreed on 24 September 2008 to participate in the EIA procedure.

But

Lithuania considers that the official notification took place later, when most of the

necessary information was presented to Lithuania, as set out in Article 3, paragraph 2,

of the Convention. This date was 24 August 2009, when Belarus forwarded to

Lithuania and the other affected Parties EIA documentation in Russian and in English

on the planned activity, including: notification, information on the transboundary EIA

procedure and on the process for public participation and consultations, as well as brief

information on the EIA documentation of the construction and operation of the NPP

in Belarus.

The question of the provision of information about the Ostrovets power plant

was considered by the Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention.

Lithuania made its request to address the question in its letter to the Implementation

Committee of the Espoo Convention of 16 June 2011.

There were several different

issues raised by Lithuania and considered by the Committee, but for the purposes of

this article the authors will stress those issues regarding the information and access to

information which are relevant to the present analysis.

It also can be stressed that the final decision of the President of Belarus to construct

a nuclear power plant was taken on 15 September 2011, and the construction activities

at the Ostrovets site were started April through August 2012, before the end of the

environmental impact assessment procedure.

During the consideration in the Committee of the question of the compliance of

Belarus with the Espoo Convention several issues of disagreement were raised:

“(a) The legal, administrative and other measures for the establishment of an

EIA procedure that permits public participation and the preparation of the EIA

documentation described in Appendix II with respect to the proposed activities listed

in Appendix I (Article 2, para. 2);

(b) Public participation (Article 2, para. 6);

(d) The preparation of the EIA documentation (Article 4, paras. 1 and 2);

(e) Consultations on the basis of the EIA documentation (Article 5);

(f ) The final decision (Article 6, paras. 1 and 2).”

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. ‘Report of the Implementation Committee on its

twenty-seventh session’ (Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment

in a Transboundary Context, Geneva, 12–14 March 2013) ECE/MP.EIA/IC/2013/2 para 10.

The detailed timeline and all documents are available at

eia_ic_s_4.html.

The Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Lithuania,

Re: Draft Finding and Recommendations

Related to the Submission by Lithuania Regarding Belarus

(Reply to the Draft Findings of the Implementation

Committee of Espoo Convention, 09 November 2012).

UNECE report 2013 (supra n 46) 10.