After almost four years of intensive pipeline route selection and refinement in
Greece, TAP has submitted its comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact
Assessment (ESIA) to the Ministry of Energy, Environment and Climate Change.
The objective of the ESIA is
to assess and optimise the potential environmental, cultural heritage and
socio-economic impacts of the proposed pipeline, and to guide the implementation
of mitigating measures to avoid or minimise adverse and enhance positive
impacts. It includes a detailed description of the proposed pipeline route in
Greece, permanent and temporary infrastructure created during the construction
phase, such as access roads and construction camps, and the operational
facilities that will be in place, when construction is
completed.
The ESIA has been carried out
jointly by Greek and international experts in accordance with the Greek law and
in compliance with the international best-standard practice as laid down by the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). These standards have
been unilaterally adopted by TAP with a view to optimise the potential impact of
the project.
Submission of the final ESIA
report is the culmination of a collaborative process with the Greek authorities
that has previously seen the submission, starting from 2010, of the Scoping
Report and Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (PEIA) for the Western
TAP Section in Greece, and the Scoping Report for the Eastern TAP Section in
Greece. In July 2013 the Ministry for Energy, Environment and Climate Change
concluded TAP's ESIA completeness review and authorized to start the official
public disclosure process. Following ESIA approval, the Greek authorities will
issue the
Environmental Terms Approval Decision, necessary for TAP to
commence the construction activities.
Rikard Scoufias, TAP’s
Country Manager in Greece, said: “I am very pleased with the
submission. It constitutes the culmination of years of intense work by national
Greek and international experts, in close cooperation with relevant authorities
as well as the communities along TAP’s route in Greece. In particular, the
hundreds of meetings that TAP has conducted with local communities and experts
along the route to listen to their observations are a testament to TAP’s
commitment to an open and transparent dialogue, which now will continue during
intensive ESIA disclosure process to share our findings and thoughts on how to
optimise TAPs presence along the pipeline corridor. These communities’ views and
comments will be incorporated in the development of the pipeline project.
Overall, this disclosure process will entail meetings both on the regional and
national level, as well as over 100 meetings at the local communities’
level.”
The ESIA public disclosure
meetings will be conducted by a combined team of TAP contractors (E.ON New Build
and Technology), local sub-contractors (Asprofos, Exergia) and TAP
representatives in the coming weeks. The meetings with local communities will
take place during 16th September to 18th October. A public announcement with the
details of date and location of the meetings will be published in national and
local media.
The full ESIA report in hard
copy will be on public display in all affected municipalities along the pipeline
route, while a hard copy of the Non-Technical Summary of ESIA will be on public
display in the community centres in all affected communities. Sealed boxes and
comment forms will be available next to the ESIA documents for public to provide
feedback.
Additionally, ESIA report
will be available for download (in Greek and English) from this website: http://www.tap-ag.gr/en/news/news/detail-view/article/420/