Greek, Albanian Farmers Unite Against Adriatic Pipeline
Themis Kalpakidis, a farmer from the small seaside town of Kavala in northeast Greece, and Agim Bendo, owner of a small plum orchard in the village of Turan in eastern Albania, share a similar agenda — even though they live some 420 kilometres apart and do not know each other.
Both of them, alongside hundreds of other Greek and Albanian farmers and activists, are at the forefront of a movement determined to halt construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, known as TAP.
While farmers in Greece want to block the pipeline, in Albania, they are struggling for compensation for use of their land. But both camps share a feeling that the TAP will make tough lives even harder.
The pipeline, whose construction was announced in 2013, is supposed to transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan, through Greece and Albania, and then under the Adriatic Sea to Italy.
There it would connect up to the European gas network, reducing Europe’s dependency on natural gas from Russia.
The pipeline is being constructed as part of the Southern Gas Corridor — a project that the European Union sees as strategically important for its energy policy. On February 6, the European Investment Bank, EIB, announced it had approved 1.5 billion euros to finance for the pipeline.
TAP’s construction is on schedule, with 65 per cent of the project completed at
the end of 2017. That includes engineering, procurement and construction, TAP’s Head of Communications, Lisa Givert, said at the end of January. She said the project was due for completion by 2020 when the first gas will be transported.
However, although the project is seen as one of the most important in the region, not everyone is happy about it.
Several hundred farmers and activists from Greece and Albania are still objecting to the project’s local impact, and some are doing their best to stop work entirely.
project itself but to the route. (Photo: Katja Lihtenvalner)
Locals in Kavala say the route of the pipeline passes too close to their farmland and archaeological sites. In Seres, locals are fighting against the construction of a compressor station.
In Albania, the big problem is compensation. While TAP has offered
compensation to farmers to carry out work on their land, the farmers say the
amount is too low and the system is not transparent enough.
Pipeline seen as threat to environment and heritage:
“The TAP is in our area is facing serious problems,” Ilias Kalantaridis, deputy
mayor of the town of Kavala, told BIRN.
He explained that when the company drew up the route of the pipeline through the region, it used “the simple logic of a straight line” without taking into account farmers’ cultivation, the soil specifics or archaeological sites.
“The work has now completely stopped for a year already,” Kalantaridis said,
adding that he supported farmers’ objections to the project, and their drive to
change the route.
One protesting farmer, Themis Kalpakidis, from the “Farmers’ initiative against TAP” in Kavala, told BIRN that in 2015 the Greek government promised local communities it would renegotiate the route of the pipeline to address local concerns. “Those promises … were soon forgotten,” he said.
This has created frustration in Kavala, a picturesque seaside town overlooking
the Aegean Sea.
Besides tourism, locals are proud of their local products and of the nearby
UNESCO world heritage site of Philippi. The remains of this ancient walled city lie only a few kilometres away from the town.
“For the last four years, ever since we found out that the TAP will affect our
region, we have been struggling for our lives, work and existence,” Kalpakidis,
told BIRN.
He said that some farmers had either sold or rented their land to TAP and left the area. But others have remained and are struggling to persuade the company to change the route.
“TAP wants to build the pipeline in fertile soil, which has many special
characteristics. One is circulation of the air, which stabilizes the humidity of the soil. Any interference will destroy this unique phenomenon,” agronomist
Theodosis Milonidis said.
He added that the peat soil in the area is also “completely inappropriate” for construction of a pipeline, as it sinks easily and is prone to catch fire in the hot summer.
When the municipality of Kavala, together with the farmers, asked TAP to alter the route, the proposal was rejected, Deputy Mayor Kalantaridis said.
However, local resistance has since forced construction to stop in the area.
Greece’s Ministry for Energy meanwhile told BIRN in a written statement that the route was indeed being changed. “The passage of the TAP pipeline in the region of Kavala has been rerouted,” it said.
In a statement to BIRN, TAP also confirmed that the new route had been selected back in 2014, adding that this was one “optimal” and had “the lowest possible impact on the environment and local societies.
“The approved pipeline route is outside the peat zone,” TAP said, adding that only “a small section of it lies within the ‘transition zone’”.
But farmers and officials in Kavala remain unsatisfied. “This suggestion contains nothing new,” Kalpakidis told BIRN.
“They are serving up the old plan. We are familiar with it and don’t agree with it,” Deputy Mayor Kalantaridis said.
Village worries about compressor station’s noise:
TAP faces resistance in another region of Greece, but for different reasons. The decision to build one of the pipeline’s compressor stations in Neos Skopos, a remote village in Greece’s northern Macedonia region, has also triggered resistance among villagers.
A shopkeeper, Konstantinos Zafeiriadis, a member of Citizens’ Initiative Against TAP, told BIRN that the group was formerd in 2013 to raise concerns about the expected pollution and noise that the compressor station was expected to cause.
Zafeiriadis said the community sought advice from environmental specialists and soon realized that TAP’s own environmental reports were over-optimistic.
“Air and noise pollution are the biggest issues that will be created by the proximity of the compressor station,” environmental specialist Michalis Davis told BIRN.
Debates about this issue soon snowballed into a petition against construction of this station, which some 4,000 people signed. The movement became one of the biggest movements against TAP in Greece.
The local authorities appealed to the Greek government back in 2014, opposing construction and seeking a change to the pipeline route.
However, the government has yet to debate the issue, which has been postponed many times.
“TAP is a huge multinational company. They have experienced lawyers, engineers, etc. I am quite sure at the end they will do as they please,” the Deputy Mayor of Serres, Ilias Gkotsis, told BIRN.
BIRN asked the Greek Ministry for Energy to explain the current status of the works in Serres area and the ministry responded in a written statement:
“TAP is proceeding with construction activities, since it has acquired all the necessary authorizations and institutional permits,” the ministry said.
Nevertheless, TAP told BIRN that the compressor station in Serres, and another one in Bilisht, Albania, would only be built once the transport of gas started.
Local activists told BIRN that TAP, together with representatives of the European Investment Bank, had contacted them and, since late 2016, had held several meetings to discuss possible changes to the route.
Neither TAP nor the EIB has offered any new information since June 2017, however.
Disappointed with their own government and foreign officials, local activists and farmers pledge to continue blocking this project.
“This fight is not over,” said Zafeiriadis. “The company is fighting for its own benefit — but we are in a passionate battle for our lives and the future of our children.”
The joined piece with report from Albanian farmers accessible here: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/greek-albanian-farmers-unite-against-adriatic-pipeline-03-16-2018
