Here's to Eòrpa

Eòrpa

If it wasn't for Eòrpa (Alba and BBC2), I would have no idea what's happening in the rest of Europe. 

For example, did you know that Germany gets 25% of its electricity by burning 'brown coal' - that is, lignite? This is the most polluting of the fossil fuels. Not content with being filthy and dangerous to human health and the environment, burning lignite pours arsenic into the atmosphere and shares it with Germany's neighbours - and that includes us, just across the North Sea. And the Germans have loads of it. As they turn away from nuclear power, Germans need a fuel supply that will be cheap to produce (lignite comes from open cast mines rather than deep mines so that ticks that box) and cheap to burn (keeping consumers' bills down - another box ticked with lignite). And they're willing to do a lot to get it. 

Most of Germany's brown coal is in the former East Germany and the German government is prepared to dump the health and well-being of local residents to keep the lights on in the west and, to quote one official from a local town hall, to 'keep industry running.' 

Perhaps the most alarming part of Germany's brown coal story is the way mining companies have dismantled whole villages to get at it, moving populations to new locations and effectively destroying their way of life. A lot of the people caught up in this are Sorbs. They are Germans but from a Slav background. They have their own language and culture and are, like many minority groups across Europe, under threat. When their villages are moved, some Sorbish inhabitants decide to go elsewhere. Then there aren't enough children to keep the village school open, the local shop closes, and in a short time what was a healthy wee community falls apart. The Sorbs are used to being at worst badly treated and at best ignored but now, having tried keeping quiet in the hope no one would bother them, they've summoned up their courage and are challenging both the mining companies and the German government. 

I wish the Sorbs good luck. They have everything on their side: the European Convention on Human Rights, the World Health Organisation, Greenpeace - and surely every right-minded  person in every community in the EU. But I wouldn't count on their local politicians backing them up: the local mayors want funding from the Land and from the federal German government, so they're playing the collaboration game. 

I saw all this in - I think - programme 3 or 4 of this season's Eòrpa. Eòrpa has the luxury of being able to devote 15 minutes to a story and really drill down to get the facts. It's worth a look on BBC iPlayer.