Albanian NGO protests against Italian energy projects

TIRANA, Dec 3 – Albanian NGOs _ “Mjaft!” (Enough!) and G99 _ protested against the signing of three agreements on energy and cement projects during the visit to Albania by Italian prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Italian companies signed a deal to build a re-gasification plant, a wind farm and interconnection line, and also to build a cement factory, costing some 2.3 billion Euros.
The nongovernmental organizations compared Berlusconi’s visit to Tirana on Tuesday with Italy’s invasion of Albania in 1939, displaying posters that said “Albania is not for Sale”.
Environmentalists also said that the contracts signed had foreseen no tax for the environment, as any European Union company should do in any country in the bloc.
There was a 1 billion euro contract singed for construction of a re-gasification plant in Levan, Fieri, that also included building a terminal and a 120-km long pipeline to ship the gas to Italy.
The Falcione company said they are aiming for the Balkan market of some 20 million population but meanwhile they would produce some 8 billion cubic meter of gas for the Italian market, thus fulfilling less than 10 percent of its demand.
Albania would receive 500 million cubic meters that it would use for the Vlora thermo-power plant (150 million cubic meters) and for other businesses.
The next deal was with the Moncada company, again for 1 billion Euros, to install hundreds of wind turbines at Karaburun to produce power and also to install a 154 km-long cable to transport power to and from Italy.
The Albanian government has transferred more than 97 hectares of land to Italy’s Moncada Energy Group, which through its Albanian subsidiary, Enpower Albania, seeks to build a 500 megawatt wind farm, comprising 250 turbines, in the south of the country. This would be the largest wind farm in Europe. The project will include the construction of a transmission line running from the port of Vlora in Albania to the Italian port of Brindisi. A cable, stretching 145km under the Adriatic at a depth of over 900 meters, will allow electricity to be transmitted in either direction. Construction is expected to start in 2010.
Environmentalists and other Albanians said the country would see few benefits from these projects while the agreements only violate environmental standards set by the EU, in which the country hopes to be a member one day.
The energy produced in Albania will be mainly used to help Italy’s energy deficit.
Environmental groups are outraged that the Albanian Ministry of Environment issued a permit for the wind farm on the Karaburun peninsula, an illegal action under Albania’s own law for protecting natural reserves that forbids all construction of roads and power transmission lines in national parks. In this case, in the Llogara national park, one of the most important natural sites on the Mediterranean.
It is often considered to be an unspoiled paradise.