on "Druzba Adria project" - the oil industry threat to the Adriatic Sea

On December 16th 2002 six countries; Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia signed the treaty known as the “Druzba Adria Project”. This project is meant to provide transport of Russian crude oil from Samara in Russia through the Central European pipeline to the tanker port in Omisalj on the island of Krk in the Northern Adriatic.

15 million tons of crude oil are planned to be exported yearly, over the period of 10 to 15 years.

The launch of the Druzba Adria Project is planned for the beginning of 2004, and it depends only on the decisions of the Croatian side. So far it has been postponed mostly because of a very negative public perception among Croatian citizens and ecological activists.

Here are the major reasons:

1. Five million tons of polluted ballast water leaking out of tankers into the Adriatic Sea each year would surely ruin its coastal and sea eco-systems. Alien organisms from oil ships’ ballast waters, such as taxifolia or memniopsis, have already destroyed the Black Sea fishery and its sea eco-system, in only 8 -10 years.

2. The Druzba Adria Project would increase the possibility of an oil ship accident drastically. A ship accident like Prestige or Exxon-Valdez would totally pollute the coasts of  the Adriatic Sea and endanger the existence of its inhabitants who are not only Croatian, but also Italian, Slovenian, Montenegrin and Albanian. For example, there are about 1.5 million people directly dependent on sea-coast tourism and fishery only in Croatia, not to mention the Italian coast. 

3. Most of the pipeline in Croatia runs through earthquake-sensitive land which is filled with rich reserves of clean drinking water, perhaps the biggest and the cleanest in Europe.

4. Croatian government has signed the treaty upon Druzba Adria Project and took over the international obligation without previously running any environmental study (thus breaking the Croatian law) and without regard of any impact on environment as well as on social, economic or politic relations in the region. By that action the Croatian government broke the ESPO Convention about the over border environmental impact.

5. Once the big American and Russian oil corporations enter the region of Adriatic Sea and Balkan, new instabilities could be expected in it.

Therefore, the European Green Party call on Croatian government:

- to make a new and objective study of impact that the Druzba Adria Project could have on environment in the Adriatic region. This should be made under supervision of independent international experts and judged by a team of official representatives of countries from the Adriatic region.

- to organize a transparent public hearing among Croatian citizens or a national referendum about Druzba Adria Project and then act in accordance with the Arhush Convention.

- to give up on the Druzba Adria Project  before it is too late. .