Monday, April 30

EU to aid cleanup of Northwest Russia

Responding to high levels of pollution in the Baltic Sea, all 15 members of the European Union agreed in a meeting March 23 in Stockholm - during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin - to help finance environmental investments in Northwest Russia.

The EU said it will provide up to 100 million euros ($88 million), to be released to a consortium of overseeing banks from its own European Investment Bank, or EIB, said Monica Loefgren, EIB information officer, in a telephone interview this week. According to recent environmental reports by Greenpeace, as well as other independent national studies, waste water from St. Petersburg is currently the largest pollutant of the Baltic Sea. "The EU Commission has already started preparations for appropriate guarantee arrangements for the above-mentioned EIB activities in Russia," Loefgren said.

Loefgren said that the 100-million-euro ceiling has been fixed for this financing within the framework of the so-called Northern Dimension EU Initiative encompassing Poland, the three Baltic States and, above all, Northwest Russia. She said, however, that no release date for the funding has yet been set. She did say, though, that part of the money for the project would go to Kaliningrad - an enclave of Russia wedged on the other side of the Baltic states from mainland Russia - and St. Petersburg, but that she was unsure how the money would be divided.

When the cash does start flowing, EIB lending will be channeled, in close cooperation with other international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Nordic Investment Bank - after authorization by the EIB's governors (EU finance ministers) - to sewage projects in St.

According to Polina Malysheva, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace-Russia, the pollution level in the Baltic Sea is alarming, though in recent years efforts by Finland, Germany, Sweden and other countries abutting the Baltic Sea have curbed their dumping of waste. When released, EIB money will go to fund the completion of sewage facilities at the Krasny Bor storage site for toxic waste located in Leningrad Oblast, 20 kilometers south of St. Petersburg. Krasny Bor is the primary dumping ground for industrial waste in the area.

The site has long been in danger of overflowing, an eventuality that would pour toxic sewage into the Neva river, with possible risks to Lake Ladoga.

The EIB cash will also help to fund a similar sewage facility to be constructed in Kaliningrad.

At a press conference in Stockholm on March 23 together with Putin, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson described the decision to invite the EIB to participate in the financing the Russian projects as a breakthrough in EU-Russian economic relations, as well as an important step in realizing the EU's Northern Dimension Initiative project. In the meantime, Greenpeace-Russia is completing research on the condition of the Baltic Sea region. Multiple probes have been taken by the Greenpeace ecologists to estimate pollution levels. "Our experts have also examined the industrial influence on the environment," Malysheva said. She said the report will be complete in mid-April.

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