EU has no direct jurisdictional basis to discuss African implementation of economic development projects – Uganda

The Government of Uganda has said that European Parliament’s reliance on international human rights instruments to condemn the East African Crude Oil Pipeline – EACOP project is a cover to negate the economic development aspirations of Uganda.

Uganda was responding to EU’s recent emergency resolution to stop the ongoing works on Uganda-Tanzania oil project citing human rights violations and environmental threats.

According to EU, EACOP, which would be the largest heated oil pipeline in the world, puts lives of more than 100,000 people at imminent risk of displacement with inefficient guarantees of adequate compensation. They want authorities to adequately compensate people for lost property and land.

They also claim that if completed, the pipeline would generate over 34 million tons of CO2 emissions every year, and threaten protected wildlife.

Parliament also expressed grave concern about arrests, of intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and NGOs working in the oil and gas sector in Uganda, and calls on the authorities to immediately release anyone arrested arbitrarily.

Parliament also demands the Ugandan authorities allow unhindered access to the zone covered by the project for civil society organizations, independent journalists, international observers and investigative researchers.

However, in her response, Uganda noted that European Parliament “has no direct jurisdictional basis to discuss African implementation of economic development projects.”

It says that the companies responsible for the EACOP project have been implementing the project while observing high human rights and environmental standards to ensure that the project does not pollute water sources and displace populations on a large scale from the land that the pipeline will traverse, and where necessary compensation has been paid or will be paid.

“It is with this background that the European Parliament Resolution adopted on 14 September 2022 condemning the EACOP project, has come as very disturbing development. The European Parliament has no direct jurisdictional basis to discuss African implementation of economic development projects. Its reliance on international human rights instruments to condemn the EACOP project is a cover to negate the economic development aspirations of Uganda and Tanzania and their people.”

It says that the resolution reference to the Tanga coast as a Tsunami risk zone is preposterous.

Uganda notes that the only leverage that the European Parliament and institutions such as the European Union Commission has on the African continent is purely based on diplomatic engagements and economic cooperation arrangements that the European Union has with African States and institutions.

“African Union Watch abhors the self-serving European Parliament Resolution as ultra vires its own powers and is an interference into African affairs.”

“African States have the right to political and economic self-determination. Uganda and Tanzania, as well as other African States have the rights to extract and use their natural resources for their own development while enjoying their Right to Development. No wonder the debate in the West on African development characterizes Africa as a European back yard. This discourse is based on the presumption that Africa is a source of raw material to the West in perpetuity,” says the Government of Uganda.

“It is our view that the European Parliament Resolution if accepted will in effect lead to the frustration of African States’ efforts to consolidate our independence, and free ourselves from dependence on the former colonial powers. Such a discourse aims at holding Africa States and their people to perpetual poverty is unacceptable.”

It says that it is very much aware of the effect of carbon emissions arising from the use of fossil fuels, and its effect on climate change.

“Yet it is also true that Africa is not a major polluter compared to the developing world.”

Uganda called on the European Parliament to ensure that the best technology is supplied to African States to ensure that they continue exploiting their resources, noting that it would be positive multi-lateral cooperation, unlike the condemnation.

Accordingly, African countries suffer from disproportionate energy poverty. The Government says that African countries can only eliminate such deficiency if they deploy all the energy resources at their disposal, including the crude oil from Hoima.

“We are aware that Europe is considering resumption of power generation using coal, because of the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.”

“If Europeans can resume the use of coal, a high pollutant, because of the conflict in Ukraine, so is the more reason that, faced with the challenges of development and poverty in Africa, we shall continue to use our resources to address those challenges,” says Uganda.

It urged the European Parliament to revoke its “abhorrent resolution”.