RTE News: Campaigners raise concerns at Shell AGM

(Willie Corduff of “The Rossport Five” spoke at todays AGM in The Hague)

Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:14

The Shell to Sea Campaign has made a number of submissions to the board of Royal Dutch Shell at the company’s AGM in the Netherlands.

Three of the members, Willy Corduff, John Monaghan and Terence Conway, made statements accusing the multinational of lies and of failing to listen to the local community.

Two other shareholders attending the London meeting via video-link to The Hague made further statements in support of the Shell to Sea campaign.

AdvertisementResponding to the remarks, Michael Brinded, an executive board member in charge of exploration and production, admitted Shell had made mistakes in the beginning and said the company regretted the jailing of members of the campaign.

However, he stressed that Shell had met all the regulatory and environmental requirements and that the project would proceed pending further exploration of the routing of the pipeline once it came onshore.

He thanked ‘law enforcement agencies’ for their role in the ongoing controversy over the Corrib pipeline.

After the meeting, John Monaghan accused Shell of ‘playing hardball’ and said the protests and legal battle would continue.

Mr Monaghan said they were not there to protest or to disrupt the meeting but to make their point about the Corrib gas pipeline as shareholders.

Registered shareholders can meet and speak at AGMs.

Before the meeting, one of the group spoke to Jeroen van der Veer, the Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell outside the meeting, inviting him to Co Mayo.

Mr van der Veer said: ‘I am very sorry to be in this situation where you had people who did support the project and people who didn’t, where we have an extremely serious situation with the Rossport Five – no one likes that and we expressed our apologies.

‘We will explain why we are convinced – within the balance of the stakeholders – of the merits of the development.’

The Shell to Sea campaign was assisted with their travel expenses by Milieu Defensie, a Dutch non-government organisation protesting against Shell’s involvement in Nigeria.

In his opening address to hundreds of private and institutional shareholders, Mr van der Veer said earnings for the group in 2006 amounted to $26.3 bn.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0515/shell.html

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