Save the Balkan Rivers: Resisting Hydro Power Plants in the Balkans & Albania

European Parliament (ASP 1G2) – Brussels

7 March (14.30 – 18.30)

Save the Balkan Rivers:

Resisting Hydro Power Plants in the Balkans & Albania

European Parliament (ASP 1G2) – Brussels

7 March (14.30 – 18.30)

14.30 – 14.45        Opening by MEP Gabi Zimmer President of GUE/NGL and MEP Stelios Kouloglou, Member of the EU-Albania SA Parliamentary Committee, GUE/NGL

14.45 – 15.30       Documentary Film Screening: “Free Flow” by Elton Baxhaku/Balkan Investigative Reporting Network-BIRN

15.30 – 17.00        Panel 1: Listening the voice of the local communities and the civil society

Chair: MEP Stelios Kouloglou, GUE/NGL and MEP Thomas Waitz, The Greens

– MEP Thomas Waitz, The Greens, Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Member of the EU-Serbia and EU-Montenegro SA Parliamentary Committees

– RiverWatch, Cornelia Wieser & EuroNatur, Theresa Schiller

– BankWatch, Igor Vejnovic

– Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Besar Likmeta

Short interventions by:

– WWF Adria, Irma Popovic-Dujmovic

– Green Home (Montenegro) Natasa Kovacevic

– EkoAkcija (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Anes Podic

– TOKA NGO for the Protection of the Albanian Alps (Albania), Catherine Bohne

– Milieukontakt (Albania), Valbona Mazreku

– Artan Rama (Albania), Investigative Journalist

17.00 – 17.10:     Screening of part of Artan Rama film

17.10 – 18.20:       Panel 2: Common efforts for saving the Balkan Rivers

Chair: MEP Stelios Kouloglou, GUE/NGL, Member of the EU-Albania SA Parliamentary Committee

– MEP Ivan Jakovcic, ALDE, Vice-Chair of the EU-Albania SA Parliamentary Committee

– Jesús Lavina, Head of Sector, Center of Thematic Expertise for connectivity, environment and regional development,  DG NEAR, European Commission

– Adrian Mara, Counsellor, Mission of Albania to the European Union

– Video Interventions by MEPs:

– MEP Knut Fleckenstein, S&D, Rapporteur of the European Parliament Report on Albania

– MEP Eduard Kukan, EPP, Chair of the EU-Serbia SA Parliamentary Committee and Member of the EU-Albania SA Parliamentary Committee

18.20 – 18.30        Closing remarks by MEP Ivan Jakovcic, ALDE, Vice-Chair of the EU-Albania SA Parliamentary Committee and MEP Stelios Kouloglou, GUE/NGL, Member of the EU-Albania SA Parliamentary Committee

For more information please contact: [email protected]

“Save the Balkan Rivers: Resisting Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPPs) in the Balkans and Albania”

European Parliament, ASP 1G2, Brussels, 7 March 14.30 – 18.30

The European Parliamentary Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) is organising a conference with subject “Save the Balkan Rivers: Resisting Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPPs) in the Balkans and Albania”, which will take place in the European Parliament in Brussels, on the 7th of March from 14.30 to 18.30.

South-Eastern Europe has a particular environment with a unique biodevirsity that has to be protected. However, since 2005 more than 2112 greenfield plants have been planned, which cause irreversible damage to the environment. Many of them are located in protected and environmentally sensitive areas and national parks. The European Parliament and the European Commission reports highlighted that environmental impact assessment studies are poorly drafted and do not ensure compliance with international standards and relevant EU legislation. For more than a decade citizens, activists and civil society from the Balkans have waged a struggle against HPPs, underlining that these projects pose a threat to the environment, sustainable development and ultimately to their way of life. There are similar cases in most of the Balkan countries, with Albania as one of the most characteristic cases.

International organisations, such as WWF, BankWatch, RiverWatch, the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network, EuroNatur, as well as from local NGOs from Albania and other S/E European countries will present the situation on the ground. Members of the European Parliament from different political groups, representatives from the European Commission and Embassies will also participate.

The web-link of the event is: https://left.eu/events/save-the-balkan-rivers-resisting-hydro-power-plants-in-the-balkans-albania/

The conference will be web live-streamed at https://web-guengl.streamovations.be/index.php/ and will be also interpreted in English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Croatian, Bulgarian and Albanian.

If you are interested in attending the conference and you have no access badge for the European Parliament, please use the following link to register https://goo.gl/forms/gvSZEyrmZqpON6TF3

Please also see for your information the Eco-Masterplan for the Balkan Rivers by Riverwatch & Euronatur under the following link

https://balkanrivers.net/sites/default/files/Eco-Masterplan%20for%20Balkan%20Rivers-A4-PRESS-web.pdf

For any additional information please contact: Mr Charalampos Kontonis at [email protected] / tel. 0032 2 2830242 and Mrs Pandora Dimanopoulou at [email protected] / tel 0032 2 28 37535