A report[1] prepared by the Energy Community[2] was published on November 19, according to which the agency declared the end of the so-called mediation process between the government officials and civil society around Namakhvani HPP, which started on June 12, 2021.

We would like to remind the public that the mandate of the Energy Community in this process, along with negotiations between the government officials and the public organizations, was to prepare independent assessments of the project, which was one of the main demands of public resistance and social movement around the Namakhvani HPP project. The CSOs learned from the above-mentioned mediation summary report published by the Energy Community on November 19, 2021, that independent evaluations had been suspended. We believe that this decision of the mediator was made without adequate consultation and discussion with the representatives of the civil society, which created a critical need for an alternative report on the process to be published.

The Energy Community subtantiated its decision to terminate its engagement with the independent review process with the news spread on September 20[3], according to which Enka had decided to terminate the Namakhvani HPP Agreement. However, due to the fact that the grounds and the consequences of the request to terminat the contract are still unknown to the public, the postponement of the assessments by the Energy Community leaves important questions unanswered regarding the project. The questions that remain unanswered may become relevant again if the project is renewed. Exit of the Energy Community at this stage most likely means being left alone vis-à-vis the main challenges, however the condition that the Energy Community will conduct independent assessments when the project is renewed - remains one of the biggest achievements of the mediation process.

This report, on the one hand, describes the circumstances that were not included in the report prepared by the Energy Community. The information presented in this report relates to the main focus of the Social Justice Center's work in this mediation process and to the information not made public during the course of 6 months, not to jeopardize the negotiation process. On the other hand, the presented report offers a reinterpretation of the conclusions made by the Energy Community on key issues of their report and elaborates on them from the perspective of the Social Justice Center.

Share