The EU must take a firm stance against the use of coal-fired power-plants in the Western Balkans, according to MEPs Petros Kokkalis and Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, supported by 28 others.
In an op-ed published on Exit’s partner EURACTIV.com, the MEPs say that Western Balkn countries are consistently failing to comply with emissions requirements, leading to significant negative impacts, including higher death rates, in EU countries.
Calling the region, “the EU’s blind spot’, they note that countries are failing to comply with air pollution standards, let alone cut the line for coal and embark on decarbonisation.
The oped states that five Western Balkan countries that use coal for power (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia), comprising of 18 plants, emit as much sulphur dioxide as the entire fleet of 222 plants.
“At least 19,000 deaths are estimated to have occurred due to air pollution from coal power plants in the Western Balkans between 2018-2020, and 12,000 of these were due to breaches of the Large Combustion Plants Directive,” they write.
While the directive came into force in the region in 2018, it is not being adhered to.
“The EU’s imports of electricity from the Western Balkans make up a tiny 0.3% of the EU’s total electricity consumption. Still, the SO2 pollution associated with these imports is half of the total SO2 emissions from all power plants in the EU in 2020. This is because power generation in the Western Balkans is around 300 times more SO2-intensive than in the EU.,” they write.
Western Balkan countries should have taken steps towards preparing for the directive since 2005 when they joined the Energy Community Treaty. Furthermore, the EU is “taking very little action to discourage such flagrant non-compliance.” The authors described the situation as an urgent public and environmental emergency.
They call for the immediate strengthening of the Energy Community treaty and asked the EU to “step up action to insist countries bring down their pollution and comply with emission requirements.”
“Failing to narrow the gap in pollution control and overall climate goals between the EU and its immediate neighbours risks eroding the ambition and eventually the credibility of the block, something which we must avoid,” the op-ed concludes.
Albania is not among the countries mentioned in the letter because most of its power comes from hydropower. Much of this is exported however, and the authorities buy fossil fuel energy from its neighbours, particularly in the winter months.
