91999E2138

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2138/99

by Didier Rod (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(15 November 1999)

Subject: Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline

According to our information, the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project is on the agenda of the next meeting of the World Bank's executive committee in mid-November. At a press conference of 30 September 1999 Mr Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, expressed his organisation's support for the project. According to our information, a positive decision to grant the necessary credit to the governments of Chad and Cameroon can be expected.

In December 1998 Parliament requested a moratorium on the project until certain guarantees concerning the distribution of revenue, the compensation and transfer of the population concerned, the specific arrangements for the environmental risks and the actual participation of civil society in the decision-making process were fulfilled.

What is the Council's position with regard to future developments in this matter?

Is the Council aware of the methods of the World Bank which, according to a publicised internal correspondence, despatches emissaries as interlocutors to appease critics of the project while at the same time preparing for its launch at the highest level? Which, at a public meeting of 30 September 1998, presents as representatives of Cameroon's civil society two persons who are employed as consultants for the World Bank?

Are there, at the level of the Council, consultations on the position taken by the Member States within the executive committee? If not, why not? If there are, was the project the subject of consultations? What is the position of the fifteen Member States regarding the decision to finance the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline?

Answer

(24 January 2000)

The matter referred to by the Honourable Member has not come before the Council, which consequently has no knowledge of the discussions on the financing of the Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline project.

Formal consultation meetings on the position taken by the Member States within the Executive Committee of the World Bank are not organised by the Council, since not all the Member States have a seat on the Committee: some are represented by another country which is not necessarily a Member State of the Community.

Finally, for the reasons mentioned above, the Council as such has no position on the decision to finance the pipeline in question.