B4-0345, 0356, 0375, 0381, 0383, 0398, 0408 and 0409/94

Resolution on the oil spill disaster in northern Russia

The European Parliament,

A.having regard to the size of the oil slick brought about by petroleum waste leaked from a pipeline owned by Komineft oil company into rivers in the northern Urals, which has grave consequences for the ecosystem not only in the Russian Federation but also in the Barents Sea and in Europe,

B.noting that these rivers, and especially the Pechora River which flows into the Barents Sea, are of fundamental importance for the people in the Arctic region of Russia as regards water and food supplies, as well as its economic existence,

C.pointing out that this pollution has been going on for ten years, during which there have been many accidents gravely damaging the environment of a whole region, and that the problem will be substantially aggravated next spring,

D.noting that information about this oil spill has been withheld by officials from the oil company, as well as by Russian Government officials, and has been minimized to the extreme from the moment that independent environmental organizations made the details public,

E.noting that this oil spill is only one of the many environmental disasters threatening the territory of the former Soviet Union,

F.whereas the European Union and the possible three new Nordic Member States face an ever-growing direct threat of environmental catastrophe from the crisis in the former Soviet Union's nuclear installations, and whereas the nuclear waste is of both civil and military origin,

G.having regard to the role which the Norwegian environmental foundation 'Bellona' has initiated through its reports on 'sources of radioactive contamination in Murmansk and Arkhangel'sk counties', and to its successful initiative for the safeguarding of the sunken Komsomolet nuclear submarine,

H.having regard to Commissioner Paleokrassas' visit on 17 October 1994 to the nuclear waste sites on the Kola Peninsula,

I.recalling that Parliament has consistently asked for the enlargement of competences of the International Court of Justice (in The Hague) for environmental matters,

J.whereas the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site still poses a grave threat to the natural and human environment both within and without the Ukrainian borders,

1.Asks the Council and the Commission to continue their efforts together with the broader international community to assist the Ukrainian authorities in putting an end to the risk of large-scale nuclear contamination inherent in the present state of the Chernobyl nuclear site;

2.Denounces the slackness and the lack of transparency of the Russian authorities who have minimized the oil spill accident, considering that the leaks that have occurred since last February, which are estimated to have spilled thousands of tons of petroleum, threaten both the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean;

3.Calls on the authorities of the Russian Federal Republic to launch an immediate investigation into the extent of the environmental damage caused by this oil spill and to come forward with a full programme for a complete clean-up;

4.Believes that the European Union must do its utmost to avoid further escalation of this oil disaster, and that Western oil companies operating in the region should refrain from further irresponsible environmental behaviour and, on the contrary, should help to stop or at least minimize the damage by adopting an environmental code of conduct;

5.Stresses the position of the European Parliament, which has once again been proved correct, that great importance should be given to funds for the protection of the environment in the framework of the PHARE and TACIS programmes;

6.Calls for the establishment of an international programme to combat the environmental disaster on the territory of the former Soviet Union and insists that the part of the TACIS Programme attributed to protection of the environment must be stepped up considerably;

7.Calls on the Commission, in view of the European technical and financial assistance being provided, to participate, in cooperation with the Russian authorities, in monitoring the construction of the new pipeline in the same region to ensure that it is not made with defective materials, as apparently it has begun to be;

8.Calls, therefore, on the Commission to provide financial aid for the cleaning of the soil and the purchase of new materials, and also to contribute to the acquisition of techniques for desulphurization, since the petroleum in this region has a particularly high level of sulphur, on condition that these operations are carried out in collaboration with credible organizations and with transparency;

9.Stresses, concerning the nuclear threat in the Kola Peninsula, the need for the European Union to deal with this matter urgently and to adopt a policy which can counter this direct nuclear threat to the Arctic fishing waters and to the inhabitants of northern Europe;

10.Calls on the Commission and on Member States to do all that is in their power, financially and by technical assistance, to ward off the threat of a nuclear catastrophe, namely by the adoption of urgent measures to study the whole problem, provide an assessment and identify pilot projects, and to start speedily dismantling the nuclear threat and repairing the damage already done; furthermore stresses the need to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy;

11.Calls on the Commission to initiate, for this purpose, a special cooperation task force involving the G-24 countries, the EBRD and the IAEA;

12.Calls for the environmental impact of all activities with which the Member States are involved in the Arctic to be reassessed;

13.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Russian authorities and those of Komis, and the Governments of Norway, Sweden and Finland.