* 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
The EIB Complaints Mechanism received a complaint registered under the case reference SG/E/2022/11B from an individual regarding the Zenata Urban Development Project implemented in the Commune of Ain Harrouda, between Casablanca and Mohammedia in Morocco. The project involves the resettlement of more than 40,000 persons. The complainant’s father and one of his brothers were both eligible for compensation and have received in compensation half a lot respectively. However, the complainant and a second brother were married after April 2012, the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) cut-off date. According to the RAP and EIB Environmental and Social Standard 6 on involuntary resettlement, the cut-off date is generally defined to determine the population affected by a project and their eligibility for compensation. It starts from the date of the census and is also set to avoid opportunistic influx or claims. The project has put in place an “integration process” enabling under certain conditions the integration and compensation of originally non-entitled household members in order to take into account demographic changes. The complainant claims for additional compensation in the form of one additional apartment for his own nuclear family.
The EIB-CM has performed an assessment and found that: i) the two originally eligible affected households have been entitled to compensation in line with the RAP and therefore received half a lot each (i.e. one lot in total), ii) the complainant and his brother married after the cut-off date have benefited from the “integration process” granting the larger family one preferential lot, thereby allowing the integrated brothers access to one additional apartment and co-ownership of half a lot with the father, as well as offering the possibility to have a shop on the ground floor, iii) the current situation of the larger family appears to meet the livelihood restoration criteria of EIB standard 6 on involuntary resettlement. EIB-CM therefore decided to close this case with no grounds under the simplified procedure. The final reply was issued to the complainant on 1/12/2022.