Secretariat opens dispute settlement procedure against Albania for non-compliant environmental impact assessment of HPP Poçem

On 14 September 2020, the Secretariat sent an Opening Letter to Albania in Case ECS-3/19, addressing its concerns with regard to the environmental impact assessment of the HPP Poçem project on the Vjosa river. In particular, the Secretariat preliminarily found that the administrative procedures conducted for the project were not in line with the provisions of Directive 2011/92/EU, with particular regard to the Directive’s requirements on the content of the environmental report and its public participation provisions.

By sending the Opening Letter, the Secretariat initiated a preliminary procedure, the purpose of which is to give Albania the opportunity to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law within two months and to enable the Secretariat to establish the full background of the case.

According to Articles 7 and 17 of the Rules of Procedure for Dispute Settlement, interested parties may be granted access to the case file and may submit written observations on the present case to the Secretariat during the preliminary procedure. All requests for information on this case should be addressed to the Deputy Director and Legal Counsel at [email protected] or +43 1 535 2222 24 and should refer to the case number ECS-3/19.