Aarhus Convention experts to issue verdict on Belarus nuclear power plant

On May 25 Warsaw became the fifth European capital that hosted the consultations on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Western Belarus. Under the Espoo Convention, Belarus is obliged to hold such consultations in all the interested countries with the participation of NGOs. In Poland, the meetings took place behind the closed doors.

Meanwhile, Arhus Convention experts are expected to issue their verdict in September whether Belarus violated international standards while developing the project of the construction of a nuclear power plant, the European Radio for Belarus has learned. In August, Espoo Convention implementation committee may also begin a formal procedure of identifying the violations of the Espoo Convention.

The international committee may identify violations of the conventions and demand that Belarus provide more details of the project and to hold new consultations in presence of the members of the public and NGOs. However, they cannot ban the construction of a nuclear power plant. Convention member states can sue Belarus at the UN International Court but only if Belarus agrees to that. At any rate, ignoring the decisions of the convention committees may cause an international scandal.

Belarus officials are confident that decisions will be positive, according to their statement during the hearings in Vienna when responding to Klemens Konrad from the Austrian environmental group Oekobutro. He said: "They answered that they were 100 percent sure that the complaints against Belarus would be rejected by the committees. They said a negative verdict was not possible".

But Andrei Andrusevich from the Ukraine-based think tank Society and Environment is confident it will be quite the opposite. He said: "I can guarantee that the violations of the convention will be found".

Andrei Andrusevich was among others who filed complaints to the Aarhus committee. Belarus has numerously ignored this international body.

The Belarusian government must respond to the requests from the Aarhus Committee by early June, but there are no answers yet. The committee is very discontent with such a behavior. But even Belarus responds there will be no positive decision by the committee, according to Andrei Andrusevich.

Poland is the fifth country after Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Austria where the safety of the future Belarusian nuclear power plant and its possible impact on the environment were discussed. Like in Latvia, the consultations were held behind the closed doors without representatives of the public. 

Ukraine and Lithuania were not satisfied with the preliminary hearings, so they would be organized again.