Closed on 31/03/2022
* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Complaint
On 27 June 2017, the EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) received a complaint alleging inadequate compensation in relation to the project “Georgia East-West Highway", Georgia.
Conclusion
The EIB-CM found that the complainant was compensated only for the parts of his plots of land, which fell within the impact zone of the highway project. However, he was not compensated for the residual parts of the plots, which had become inaccessible because of the implementation of the project. He was not provided with a clear justification for the lack of compensation.
The EIB-CM considered that the situation of the complainant then was not in line with the EIB’s social standards, which aim to mitigate any adverse impacts arising from the affected persons’ loss of assets, or access to assets and/or restrictions of land use, whether temporary or permanent, direct or indirect, partial or in their totality. In addition, their situation was not in line with the principle of improving or at least restoring the social and livelihood resources of the project-affected people at their pre-project level.
Outcome
The EIB-CM issued one recommendation when closing its compliance review in July 2018. The EIB-CM recommended that the EIB operational services work with the promoter in order to address the complainant’s specific case and find an acceptable solution to his situation in line with the EIB’s social standards.
Monitoring
The EIB-CM performed the monitoring of the implementation of the recommendation until its completion in March 2022. The relevant EIB operational service regularly informed the EIB-CM about the progress made and the results achieved. The promoter provided mitigation measures to allow uninterrupted access and cultivation of the remaining portions of the land parcels of the complainant. These measures included 1) the construction of an access road to allow the landowner’s uninterrupted access to both adjacent remaining portions of land parcels for cultivation purposes; 2) the construction of a drainage to avoid flooding of the remaining portions of agricultural land parcel; and 3) regular cleaning of the channels and spots to prevent flood damages till the construction of drainage was completed. After review, the EIB-CM considered that the Bank successfully implemented the recommendation, helping the promoter and complainant to find a solution in line with the EIB’s social standards. The complainant was able to cultivate timely and had no restrictions to access and use the land plot for agricultural purposes. The complainant expressed his satisfaction with the solution and has not submitted any further claims. Therefore, the EIB-CM closed the monitoring process of this case as of end Q1 2022.