SLOVAKIA / HUNGARY: Objections mount to proposal for new power station in Slovakia

The town of Trebisov near the Hungarian-Slovak border could become the site of Slovakia's largest coal-fired power station. A Slovak company called Ceskoslovenska Energetica Spolocnost (CES) intends to build a more than 880 mega-watt power plant with a 163 metre high chimney on the outskirts of the town on the site of a former sugar factory. But the plans have upset the town with a population of 22,000 people. People fear that the power plant will pollute the air with an estimated four million tonnes of pollutants each year. At the end of July, two months after the plans came to light, more than 9,000 signatures were collected against the power station and a civil protest group had been formed in the town. The town's council consequently decided not to support the plans. Leader of the protest group, Gejza Gore told Reuters concerns are running high in the town. "The people are worried because this power station would be the biggest ever built in Slovakia and it would be very near the centre of the town. People are afraid that it would badly affect the quality of their lives and also have environmental damages," Gore said. The investor company, CES, tried to reassure locals at a public hearing that the power plant would be built according to European Union standards and would not pollute. At a cost of 1.1 billion euros, the power plant would be Slovakia's biggest investment in recent decades, the company said at the hearing. Company representatives also said that an environmental study has been carried out, but opponents say any pollution issues were only mentioned on a single page of the document. The public hearing did not seem to convince many locals. "On one hand it could be good for the people of Trebisov because electricity here could be cheaper, but on the other hand it would have environmental and pollution risks as everyone is saying," Trebisov resident, Anna Hojdenova said. "The air would be polluted here. And what would happen to those who live around there. How will they be evacuated?" another resident, Tobias Lubomir said. Concerns are also growing on the Hungarian side of the border as the nation's most famous wine region is located just 25 kilometres from the planned power station. Environmental groups say that emissions from the plant could upset the chemical composition of the soil and even affect the local climate. The distinctive flavour of the Tokaj wines owes much to the climate of the region. "The danger is that those harmful chemical materials that this power station would release would fall directly on the Tokaj wine region and its vicinity because of the dominant wind directions and there would also be an ensuing acid rain which we are afraid of. So it would directly endanger the wine region," Ferenc Marcinko, president of the Tokaj region Wine Producers' Council said. People from more than 27 towns and villages in the Tokaj region have joined the protests and so far more than 3,000 signatures have been collected. Wine makers and locals fear that their world famous wine could be endangered if the power plant is built. Tokaj is a World Heritage site and has been famous throughout Europe since the 17th century for its sweet Sauternes-like wines known as Tokaji. It was hailed by Louis XIV as "a wine for kings, and the king of wines". It is rated among the finest wines in the world. "No, no, we are not happy about this at all. This wine region would completely lose its image because of it. And it would seriously endanger several hundreds of years of wine tradition that gives a livelihood for thousands of people here in this wine region," wine maker Istvan Gotz said. The Hungarian government has said it is determined to put a stop to the power plant. The Hungarian environment ministry recently informed the Slovakian government that it wished to vet the construction of the plant. The environment minister recently said Hungary would need two months to assess the cross-border environmental impacts of the plant. He also said he expected the Slovak government to include Hungary in the process based on the international Espoo Agreement. "We would not like this power station be built there just as the population of Trebisov and the surrounding area would not like it either. We are supporting and agreeing with the efforts of the local people there, because we think that such a power station is not suitable for that area because it would endanger the natural surroundings, especially the Tokaj region to such an extent that it would not be in proportion with the benefits that Slovakia is hoping to get with this power station," Gabor Fodor, Hungary's environment minister said. "So, Hungary and the Hungarian government very firmly hold the position that the power station should not be built at Trebisov, but some other location where it would not endanger the environment," Fodor added. In Bratislava, the Slovak environment ministry did not wish to go into details about the plans saying it was still too early in the process. "At present we are collecting all the necessary information and evaluating the possible influence of the environment. Any information about the process is now preliminary," Peter Visvader, spokesman of the Slovak environment ministry said.

ITN Source | August 27, 2007

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