Bid to enforce conservation law

Date: 16/05/1996

By Michael Mann

ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard will begin clamping down on member states who have failed to implement the terms of the 1991 Habitats Directive in the second half of this year.

A majority of member states are now almost a year late in notifying special conservation areas to the Commission and have already received warning letters of impending legal action from the EU executive.

Officials stress that efforts are being made to assist member states to overcome the considerable administrative and technical difficulties they face, but their patience is wearing thin.

“At the moment we're trying to help, but soon we'll have to get tough. The Commission can be expected to move publicly under the Irish presidency,” said an official.

The indications are that the Nordic member states have generally followed the guidelines of the legislation to the letter, and the UK has made good progress.

But France, Greece, Germany, Austria, Spain and Belgium, among others, have been less successful. Officials admit that the governments of decentralised federal countries face particular problems in working their way through the complex administrative procedures involved.

Although a lot of impressive technical work has been done to identify the use of every single piece of land in each member state, the Commission is still waiting for member states to make delicate political decisions.

Aware that local authorities and farming organisations are concerned that it is trying to add another layer of regulation to the countryside, the Commission has begun a tour of member states to convince those on the ground that the directive is simply aimed at improving nature conservation.

Officials in DGXI, responsible for the environment and DGXVI (regional policy) are also grappling with the continuing controversy over Cohesion Fund financing of the Tagus Bridge in Portugal, which environmental lobbyists claim breaches the terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment carried out on the site.

Since Regional Policy Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies threatened earlier this year to pull the plug on the remainder of the 311 million ecu of EU money earmarked for the site, little official progress has been made, partly a result of the recent change of government in Portugal.

Privately, however, Commission officials accept that several environmental guidelines were overlooked. Over eight months ago, Portuguese pressure group LPN sent the Commission a detailed dossier highlighting a number of shortcomings, including the decision to begin building work during the nesting season of several endangered bird species.

According to a Commission official, the Portuguese “have since added insult to injury” by building a road through the 'special protection area', designated under the terms of the Wild Birds Directive.

LPN claims that the Commission was wrong to allow the project to go ahead in exchange for compensatory measures because, under the terms of this legislation, projects are only permitted “in the absence of alternative solutions”.

This, they stress, is not true of the Tagus project, which is principally of benefit to land speculators. LPN has begun legal proceedings against the project in the European Court of Justice and the Portuguese Supreme Court.

Work is continuing on the latest complaint and the Commission is keeping its options open as to what action it might take. One strategy could be to block financing for the project.

DGXI's officials maintain that the Tagus Bridge is regarded as an important test case for a number of Cohesion Fund projects in an advanced stage of planning, such as the Alqueva Dam, also in Portugal.

“The Commission intends to be firm if contracts are breached,” said one.