PRESS RELEASE
28th August, 2006 – Helsinki – Representatives from both CEDHA and the Citizens’ Assembly of Gualeguaychú arrived today in the Finnish capital of Helsinki to discuss Botnia’s violations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. CEDHA complained to the Finnish Government in April 2006 citing a wide range of violations to the Guidelines, of which the OECD representatives in Finland have made an initial assessment, determining that the issues require further examination and will mediate the process of dialogue between the parties.
Daniel Taillant, CEDHA’s Executive Director, and Oscar Bargas representing the Citizen’s Assembly of Gualeguaychú have been warmly received and given invaluable support by Finnish NGO’s the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and Siemenpuu Foundation. Similarly, Finnwatch who are also a member of the international OECD Watch network with administration based in the Netherlands, has been instrumental in organising media and other events for the advocates from Argentina.
The meeting between CEDHA, the Assembly, Botnia, Finnvera and chaired by Finland’s Ministry for Trade and Commerce, will be an initial discussion on the complaints raised by CEDHA in the Specific Instance against Botnia filed in April of this year. A portion of the meeting will also be reserved to discuss the subsequent Specific Instance (still under admissions review) filed against Finnvera, the Finnish owned Export Credit Agency.
Upon arrival in Finland, Botnia reiterated its invitations made in July to CEDHA and now to Mr. Bargas of the Assembly, to visit one of its mills in Joutseno. Both CEDHA and Bargas refused the invitation on the count that they consider comparing dissimilar volumes of production, in dissimilar production conditions, with uncertainty as to technologies to be used in Uruguay, and given the more lax controls commonly present in developing countries (compared to strict finnish controls), a site visit would not serve to ease concerns of local stakeholders who see investments with finish technology in Chile, Brazil, and even Argentina, producing disastrous results. Furthermore, Taillant stated , the grounds of the OECD complaint are centered on Botnia's negligent behaviour in not following IFC safeguards, violating international human rights and environmental law, and failing to adhere to the OECD Guidelines, in Uruguay, not in Finland. We've conveyed to Botnia that we'd be happy to accompany Botnia, however, to one of the sites in the southern hemisphere where modern finnish ECF technology is being used, so that they can show us what has gone wrong with those investments, that apparently would not go wrong in Uruguay.
For more information contact:
Daniel Taillant
+ 54 9 11 6182 3172
jdtaillant@cedha.org.ar