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Aarhus Convention committee discusses Belarusian authorities’ nuclear project

The Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention last week discussed a complaint about the Belarusian authorities’ alleged failure to hold an appropriate public discussion about their plans to build a nuclear power plant, BelaPAN reports.

As a result of the discussion, the Committee decided to ask Minsk to submit additional information that may help its probe into the application.

The application was filed by Oekobuero, a coordination bureau for Austrian environmental organizations that is a member of the European Eco-forum.

The paper says that the authorities informed the public of their decision to build the station but did not allow people to take part in the decision-making or express their opinion.

It says that the authorities violated a number of articles of the United Nations’ convention by failing to ensure an adequate access to information or carry out proper procedures for the participation of the public in the decision-making regarding the nuclear project.

At the last week meeting, the Committee heard reports by representatives of the Belarusian energy and environmental protection ministries and anti-nuclear campaigners.

Its members expressed serious concern about the authorities’ crackdown on environmentalists, in particular a jail term that was imposed on Russian activist Andrei Ozharovsky following a public hearing on the nuclear project in Astravets, Hrodna region.

The Committee looked at the decision-making regarding the nuclear project and the public hearing in Astravets.

It asked the Belarusian ministries to reply officially to environmental groups’ applications and comment on the crackdown on anti-nuclear activists.

The Committee is expected to take a decision on the application in December.

“I think that the Committee will find Belarus guilty of the violations of the Aarhus Convention that we mention in our complaint,” Andriy Andrusevych, a representative of the European Eco-forum, told BelaPAN. “I also hope that the Belarusian nuclear project will be raised at a meeting of signatories to the Aarhus Convention to take place next year.”