Bjerregaard pledges to continue wielding stick

Date: 24/07/1997

By Michael Mann

GOVERNMENTS which have failed to respect EU environmental legislation face an uncomfortable autumn.

Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard pledged this week to push ahead with the kind of fines against wrongdoers which have already persuaded both Germany and Italy to mend their ways.

“We are preparing other cases and some of these will be ready in the autumn. Some will involve countries not affected by this type of action before,” she said in an interview with European Voice.

Bjerregaard has been greatly encouraged by the rapidity with which both Bonn and Rome have moved to bring their laws into line with EU norms when faced with the threat of fines under Article 171 of the Maastricht Treaty.

“We took three cases against Germany and two against Italy. Already two of the German cases are solved and one of the Italian ones, and we have good expectations for the other two,” she said.

While promising to continue her robust approach, Bjerregaard says she would prefer not to receive a single ecu from any of the offending countries.

“We do not want to see the money, we want to see the problem solved. Some of the cases we are working on at the moment will be sorted out before we have to take a final decision, because we are in contact with the governments in question,” she explained.

Buoyed by the success of her threats against Germany and Italy, the Commissioner refuses to accept claims that administrative confusion between local and national authorities are to blame for much of the delay.

“Countries will always claim that it is caused by administrative procedures. But it is very strange that they can solve the problems in two or three months when they have failed for so long before. I do not know how much credence you can give to that sort of argument,” she said.

Bjerregaard believes that it is not only the sums involved - such as the potential fine faced by Germany of more than a quarter of a million ecu per day for failing to respect laws on groundwater - but also the embarrassment caused by the threat of fines that have contributed to the success of the '171 procedure'.

“In our most recent case against Greece, we publicised it through press coverage and on television. I made it explicitly clear that the case would come out and they had to prepare themselves for it,” she said.

Whether this has had the desired effect on Athens remains to be seen, however, as it has yet to respond to the case launched last month.

Bjerregaard claims she has received overwhelming support from fellow Commissioners for her tough approach, although none of her colleagues has yet followed her lead in recommending fines.

She puts much of the Commission's success in spotting shortcomings in national measures down to the “enormous engagement from the population”, and stresses that the role of individuals and non-governmental organisations is crucial in the absence of an EU-wide environmental inspectorate.

But she sympathises with the view that those filing complaints should be kept better informed of how the Commission's investigations are progressing, and has pledged to continue efforts to work on the 'carrot' as well as the 'stick'.