News

The Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters held from 30 June to 2 July in Maastricht, the Netherlands, once again called on Belarus to build its nuclear power plant in compliance with the provisions of the Convention.

The participants of the meeting noted that when constructing its nuclear power plant in Ostrovets, Belarus violated the Convention, because public was not granted access to information about the nuclear project. They also noted that Belarus had not implemented recommendations provided by the Compliance Committee under the Aarhus Convention three years ago.

On the initiative of the Lithuanian delegation, the EU member states issued a joint statement, which called on Belarus to fulfil the requirements by the next Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention. If this will not be done, the EU plans to propose to take measures against Belarus as set forth in this Convention.

The Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) in Geneva in June also called on Belarus to fulfil the requirements of the Convention and to submit answers to all of the essential questions raised by the Lithuanian public and experts about the safety of the nuclear power plant in Ostrovets and health risks in the Lithuanian population.

In 2011, the Compliance Committee deemed that Belarus was in breach of the Aarhus Convention.