WOB applications relating to export support for gas project in Mozambique
At the beginning of this year, the Dutch government provided Dutch companies with export insurance worth 903 million euros to enable them to participate in a gigantic natural gas project in the north of Mozambique. Together with partners from Mozambique and the Netherlands, Both ENDS has been conducting a dialogue with export credit agency Atradius DSB and the responsible Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs on the possible financial, environmental and social risks of the gas project.
Incomprehensible decision
Neither we nor the Mozambican organisations representing farming and fishing families in the area around the gas project understand how the ministries could take the decision to provide export credit insurance for this project. While the project is causing enormous social, environmental and security risks, the government refuses to provide clear information on how the companies involved in it intend to minimise and control these risks.
WOB applications and notices of default
On the 7th of December 2020, together with Milieudefensie, Friends of the Earth Europe and SOMO, we submitted a number of applications under the Government Information (Public Access) Act (WOB) to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Atradius DSB to secure the release of this essential information. So far, we have received no decisions on our applications. After consultations with the Ministry of Finance at the end of June, it appeared that the period for reaching the decisions will be exceeded even longer, until after the summer parliamentary recess. Since they are substantially exceeding the decision periods, we have served the ministers and Atradius DSB with formal notices of default. And we have sent a letter to the government requesting decisions on the WOB applications before the 13th of July 2021.
For more information:
Read the notices of default
Earlier this year, the cooperating organisations sent letters on the situation in Mozambique to:
Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (in Dutch)
Hans Vijlbrief, State Secretary for Finance (in Dutch)
Core questions we hope to see answered with the WOB applications:
• On what basis did the Netherlands make its decision to provide export credit insurance?
• How were security risks taken into account in that assessment, and how are they minimised while the project is being implemented?
Read more about this subject
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Event / 3 November 2021, 16:45 - 18:00
UNFCCC COP 26 side event ‘Aligning export finance with the Paris Agreement: high time to phase out fossil fuels’
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