Euro Left MEPs Plea on Behalf of Rossport 5
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report 
Wednesday July 13, 2005 10:22
by europhile
Members of the European Left/Nordic Greens have requested the Chairperson of a delegation to Norway from the Parliament to ask the Norwegian Government to instruct Statoil to use its influence to stop all activity on the pipeline pending an agreement that addresses the concerns of the imprisoned men.
Mrs Diana Wallis
Chairwoman
EEA/SIN
Dear Mrs Wallis
Last week five farmers from Rossport in County Mayo were imprisoned for contempt of court in a dispute with Corrib Gas , a conglomerate made up of Shell, Marathon and Statoil.
The company wants to install a gas pipeline on agricultural land owned by the farmers. Due to Health and Safety concerns the farmers in question are unwilling to allow the work to proceed, which has led to them being jailed on foot of an injunction sought by the company.
As Statoil is a Norwegian state owned company, we the undersigned members of EEA/SIN call on you as Chairwoman, to use your influence by writing formally to the Norwegian Government requesting that it instruct Statoil to freeze the project until such time as agreement has been reached on the farmers' concerns.
Yours sincerely
MARY LOU McDONALD MEP
JONAS SJÔSTEDT MEP
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3Free them and stop hiding behind the law
WE Sinn Féin councillors call on the Government to intervene as a matter of urgency to secure the release of the five Co Mayo protesters known as the Rossport Five.
The Government bent over backwards to create the situation where Shell and its associates could have untrammelled access to the Irish people’s natural resource.
All over the world, and particularly in Nigeria, Shell has shown little concern for human rights in their quest for enormous profits.
The Government should now, late as it is, stand up for its citizens and intervene to secure the release of five Irishmen who are opposing this multinational trampling over their property.
The Government fashioned the situation where people going about their ordinary lives find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
They should stop hiding behind the legal system in order to give unquestioning support to this multinational conglomerate and work instead to secure the rights of the people in Co Mayo.
Toiréasa Ní Fhearáiosa
Mayor, Kerry County Council
Robert Beasley Kerry County Council
Cllr Martin Hallinan Cork County Council
Jonathan O’Brien Cork City Council
Annette Spillane Cork City Council
David Cullinane Waterford City Council
Joe Kelly Waterford City Council
Brendan Mansfield Waterford Co Council
John Desmond Bandon Town Council
Ann O’Leary Bantry Town Council
Liam Walsh Carrick-on-Suir Town Council
Michael Browne Cashel Town Council
Cionnaith Ó Suilleabháin
Clonakilty Town Council
Paul Hayes Clonakilty Town Council
Kieran McCarthy Cobh Town Council
Seamus Coleman Fermoy Town Council
Anthony Curtain Listowel Town Council
Willie O’Regan Mallow Town Council
Gina Hennessy Midleton Town Council
Shamie Morris Nenagh Town Council
Roisín Ó Suilleabháin
Passage West Town Council
Donneaghdha Ó Sé
Skibbereen Town Council
Dave Doran Thurles Town Council
Maisie Houlihan Tralee Town Council
Cathal Foley Tralee Town Council
Sandra McLellan Youghal Town Council.
>>Members of the European Left/Nordic Greens have requested the Chairperson of a delegation to Norway from the Parliament to ask the Norwegian Government to instruct Statoil to use its influence to stop all activity on the pipeline pending an agreement that addresses the concerns of the imprisoned men.
Lucky us! If power were devolved to local people in a real and meaningful way, the ordinary people of Erris and Ireland would be reaping the long term benefits of offshore gas.
To hell with Shell-StatOil and to hell with the EU and the Dublin government! Power to the people!
The European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in the European Parliament to which Sinn Fein's two MEP's belong have issued a statement on the case of the Rossport 5 and the Corrib Gas pipeline:
Environment policy co-ordinator of the GUE/NGL EU parliamentary group, MEP Jonas Sjöstedt, has condemned in the strongest possible terms the decision to imprison five farmers from Rossport in County Mayo, Ireland and called on the Norwegian Government to instruct Statoil, a Norwegian state owned company, to freeze the project until agreement has been reached on the farmers' concerns.
The men were imprisoned for contempt of court in a dispute with Corrib Gas, a conglomerate made up of Shell, Marathon and Statoil. The company wants to install a gas pipeline on agricultural land owned by the farmers. Due to Health and Safety concerns the farmers in question are unwilling to allow the work to proceed, which has led to them being jailed. As Statoil is a Norwegian state owned company, said MEP Sjöstedt, we call upon the Norwegian Government to instruct Statoil to freeze the project until such time as agreement has been reached on the farmers' concerns.
Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald said:
"Multinational companies do not care about local communities - their overriding concern is profit. Corrib gas is completely under the control of a company that can write off all its tax, pays no royalties and sells the
gas back to the Irish state at market value.
"We want to take this opportunity to express our solidarity with those who
have been imprisoned and call for their immediate release.
"We believe that pipelines such as these should come under the terms of the
Seveso Directive on the transport of hazardous materials."
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