The non-transparent Kosova e Re project is a bad investment for Kosovo’s citizens. Any serious government that may come to power should reverse this project.
Through an irresponsible government, Kosovo decided to build a new Chernobyl in Obilic. The Kosova e Re (‘Kosovo C’) power plant is harmful for public health, the agreement to build it is not transparent, and environmental pollution will increase. Experts predict that electricity prices will also increase.
The EU asks every country that aims to become its member to ‘decarbonize’ their energy sector. Kosovo is doing the opposite, whereas other countries are materializing their plans so that by 2030, they will produce all of their energy from renewable sources, such as through solar power, wind, rain, tidal energy, wave power, and geothermal energy. It is understood that this goal will be difficult to reach in Europe, and even after 2030, electricity will still be produced by coal, but the trend seems clear: keep away from coal in the name of environmental protection and the protection of natural resources.
It may be a coincidence, or not, that Serbia, which also produces a great deal of its electricity via coal, said that they received an 80 million euro loan from KfW, the German State Bank, in order to finance a wind energy park. After the Kostolac energy park is built, it will have a starting capacity of 66 MegaWatts, and within a year it is expected to reach more than 135 Gigawatts of electricity.
“KfW supports Serbia in its path to use the wind’s potential to produce electrical energy. This is an important step in energy production that is harmony with the environment and the climate,” said Joachim Nagel, the KfW board member. After the wind park becomes operational, Serbia is expected to offset 120 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The opposite is expected to happen in Kosovo. And, the poisoning of the environment is sold as a contribution towards ‘friendship with America.’ Yet no investor can make a government poison its own citizens — governments do this on their own, if they manage to find a populace who are patient and uninformed in regards to the issues of environmental protection.
While only in 2016 Serbia exported goods with a value of almost 14 billion euros, Kosovo in 2017 decided to go ahead and increase the ‘production’ of carbon. Kosovo Civil Society Consortium for Sustainable Development, KOSID, warned that the decision for Kosova e Re stands “against constitutional principles of a democratic state that promotes environmental protection, against the principles of environmental protection, against the law on energy and the promotion of an free and integrated market in the region and beyond. Sidelining these constitutional and legal regulations is unacceptable and as such this decision should be revoked.”
Chances that such a thing will happen with the current government are slim. This is because the governmental structure of the ‘commanders’ has only one vision for Kosovo: the plundering of its resources.
Who could currently stop such a thing? Kosovo has an inefficient administration that is entirely corrupt. Kosovo barely has any production capacities and remains a place dependent on imports. The trade balance is immensely negative. Public investments are focused mainly on building extremely expensive roads (‘highways’) with contracts that are not transparent. Foreign investments are negligible. The salaries are among the lowest in Europe, yet the cost of everyday goods is similar to the countries of the EU.
To face these challenges, Kosovo needs a government that liberates the country from party-interest groups, oligarchy clans, mafia clans, and nepotism. Whoever thinks that this government is capable of such a thing, they should definitely check in for a psychological evaluation.
The opinions expressed in the opinion section are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.