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Terminal subsidies
In the last five years, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has helped provide the aviation industry with EUR 8 billion of virtually interest free loans, thus lending public support to a major polluter, according to a new report from CEE Bankwatch and Friends of the Earth International. Entitled "Flying with Big Business: The European Investment Bank and the Aviation Industry," the report notes that many of the EIB loans have gone to environmentally controversial projects, including ones in this region such as the Sofia Airport in Bulgaria. Hannah Ellis, of CEE Bankwatch Network/FoEI, said that EIB financing for the aviation industry breaks the EU principle of investing only in projects that contribute to the social and economic cohesion of the union. The funding even breaks an EIB statute stating that it should not loan money to projects where funds are available from other sources on reasonable terms. "This has not been the case with regard to projects at Amsterdam Schiphol or Heathrow Airport Expansion," Ellis wrote. Supporters of such subsidies extol their economic benefits, but in light of other subsidies already in place for the industry, these are extremely dubious, according to Ellis. Friends of the Earth cites research that shows that while new airports and new air services play a role in attracting investment, the expansion of air services and airports has little influence. For example, between 1978 and 1996, the number of flights at Frankfurt Airport increased by 77.8 percent, but employment only rose by 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, environmentalists complain that the aviation industry is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions and a significant contributor to noise and air pollution. Bulgarian NGOs have faulted the EIB-supported reconstruction and extension of Sofia Airport, whose proposed terminal is depicted above, because the air traffic disturbs residents and pollutes the air, soil and water. Several activists claim that no one has ever performed an adequate environmental impact assessment for the project. EU ACCESSION Nuclear phase out In a move hailed by antinuclear activists across Europe, Germany began phasing out atomic power this fall with the closure of a 32-year-old power plant near the town of Stade. It was the first step of a 20-year conversion agreed to by utilities and the government that bears the stamp of the environmentalist Greens party, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's junior partner. The step could serve as a good example to the much more nuclear-intensive countries of Central and Eastern Europe, according to Vojtech Kotecky of Friends of the Earth Czech Republic (Hnuti DUHA). "The German development shows that nuclear power can be phased out while cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the same time," Kotecky wrote in response to an e-mail query. "Germany plans to get rid of nuclear reactors and is one of the European leaders in climate protection, while the Czech government plans to both continue to be one of the European leaders in per capita climate pollution and to build new reactors," Kotecky wrote. Over the next two decades, Germany plans to shut down all its remaining 18 plants. The 660-megawatt facility at Stade, the country's second oldest, was powered down on November 14 and will be disassembled beginning in 2005, after spent nuclear fuel rods are removed and sent to France for reprocessing. Though Europe's second largest economy may well steam ahead without domestic nuclear power, it could still import it, which presents a worry. "In the Czech Republic, the point of great concern is that officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade continue to point out that after the German phase out there will be a very good possibility for export of Czech nuclear electricity," according to Jan Haverkamp, campaign director for the Prague branch of Greenpeace. This is one reason behind recent plans by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade to propose the building of two to eight nuclear power plants between 2010 and 2030, noted Haverkamp. The Czech Environment Ministry is pressing for a German-like phase out of nuclear power. The discussion on both plans is still open and will be taken up early next year by the cabinet. |
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The Bulletin - the Quarterly Magazine of the REC |
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