European Action Day

On November 10 250 non Government organisations across Europe demanded that the European Commission take steps to hold European companies accountable for damages they cause in developing countries.

The day was organised by the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ), a network of 250 European NGOs. Events have been organised across Europe – including a simulated oil spill in front of the European Commission’s building-  to draw attention to the breach of environmental and human rights standards by international companies.

Ruth Casals ECCJ coordinator says “regrettably, there currently exists no binding mechanism at the international level ensuring that companies are held accountable for any violations they commit, or in which they are complicit.”

Organisers hope to change this by pressuring the Commission to strengthen the monitoring of corporations. The day’s events are part of a larger campaign, “Rights for people- Rules for business”. Its objective is to collect 100,000 signatures from citizens around Europe to support the demands ECCJ has made to the Commission.

The ECCJ is urging the Commission to adopt policy that asks greater accountability and transparency from European companies operating abroad and that insures better justice for victims of poor corporate practices in poor countries.  

The date is a symbolic, it commemorates the 15 anniversary of the execution of the Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who campaigned against the presence of the oil company Shell in his country.

Fifteen years later European environmental NGOs say that multinational corporations are still having a detrimental impact in developing countries.

Paul de Clerk of Friends of the Earth Europe, an international environmental NGO, says, “Shell and other oil companies have spilt as much oil in Nigeria as BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Not even the Nigerian government is stopping them. Continuous oil pollution by European companies in Nigeria shows the urgent need for the EU to take steps to hold European companies accountable for the damages they cause in other parts of the world.”

A spokes person for Shell says the company’s environmental record has improved in recent years. “The total number of spills in 2009 was 132, against the average between 2005 and 2009 of 175 per year.” He adds that “thieves or saboteurs” are liable for “almost 98 per cent of the volume of oil spilled during the year.”

During the early 1990s Saro-Wiwa campaigned against the global oil company Shell and the local authorities in the Niger Delta of Nigeria, as the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. His group spoke out against the oil giant, bringing attention to the high frequency of oil spills in the region, and demanded that it share part of its profits with the local Ogoni community.