Lawsuit dismissed: Pipeline construction in East Africa continues
The French oil company Total is allowed to continue building the longest heated oil pipeline in the world. Environmentalists wanted to stop the construction in court.
Despite international protests (like here in London): the Eacop pipeline may continue to be built Photo: Vuk Valcic/Reuters
BERLIN taz | The attempt by French and Ugandan environmentalists to Construction of the EACOP oil pipeline (East African Crude Oil Pipeline) has failed. A court in Paris dismissed a corresponding lawsuit as inadmissible on Tuesday afternoon. The French oil company Total is allowed to continue building the longest heated oil pipeline in the world.
The French organizations “Amis de la Terre” and “Survie” and the Ugandan organizations AFIEGO (African Institute for Energy Governance), CRED (Civic Response on Environment and Development), NAPE (National Association of Professional Environmentalists) and NAVIDA (Navigators of Development). Association) had a suspension of the pipeline construction of Uganda to the Indian Ocean as long as Total does not present what it considers to be adequate precautions for dealing with human rights and ecological risks.
The court found that the plaintiffs failed to correctly state that the existing plans would not be sufficient. According to Amis de la Terre, it did not comment on the matter.
The pro-oil ruling comes at the start of a trip French President Emmanuel Macron is set to take to several key oil-producing countries in Africa. Macron is expected in Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first three destinations live from oil exports and all four are among the most corrupt countries in the world.
During the Eacop process, the proximity of the oil company Total to the French state was often discussed. In a keynote speech on Monday evening, Macron called for increased French investment in Africa and declared that France’s “primacy of security policy” in Africa, which had brought much criticism to the ex-colonial power, was now over.
