Urgent action needed for Lithuanian rivers

CCB • June 14, 2016

A proposal to amend the Lithuanian Water Act and Law of Protected areas threatens two of the last rivers in Europe with open fish migratory pathways, Nemunas and Neris, home to populations of wild salmon, trout and sturgeon as well as the endangered European eel.

In 2004, the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) adopted an amendment to the Water Act to make dam construction on Nemunas and other rivers that are valuable in terms of environment and culture, forbidden. In this way Lithuania assured the successful implementation of its international obligations regarding the conservation of migratory species. However, there are now proposals to amend the Water Act and the Law on Protected Areas to make possible the construction of a five dams on Nemunas River below Kaunas and a cascade of three dams in Neris River, all foreseen to include hydropower plants and facilitate new possibilities for transports. Despite having diminutive capacity on national scale, and having more environmentally friendly alternatives (same quantity of electricity could be produced by a wind farm with 30 turbines), this proposal has significant lucrative potential, providing its owner with up to 20 M Euro per annum of incomes. However, this proposal would have massive negative effects on the environment. The suggested cascade of 5 dams would flood large areas of habitats of unique flora and fauna, block one of few remaining European migratory fish paths in Nemunas and Neris rivers as well as their tributaries. It would void the works from the last 10 years to restore habitat of salmon, trout and sturgeon stocks and would also block an important habitat and migratory way for the endangered European eel. In an open letter to the President and the Prime Minister of Lithuania, the speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament and the Minister of Environment, CCB now urges the Lithuanian government and parliament to not support the proposed amendments to the Water Act and Law on Protected Areas.

CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.