More cases of EIA rules being ‘ignored’

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A study by the public-interest legal network Justice and Environment (J&E) says transport projects in six countries have been approved despite numerous gaps in the implementation of the EU’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) directive. While five of the six are EU members who joined in 2004, the sixth is Austria, a member since 1995 which generally has a strong record on the environment.

In addition, the Clean Air Action Group in Hungary has written to the Commission’s secretary general, asking the EU to deny funding for Hungary under the transport and regional operative programmes, as money from them agreed for road projects will violate EU legislation on the internal market, environment and anti-fraud policy.

J&E, which has looked at both EIA and sites protected under the EU’s Natura 2000 directive, says some or all of the six countries it investigated had neglected EIA criteria in deciding whether an assessment was needed, taken a “special approach” to transport projects that reduces environmental monitoring, failed to look at less damaging alternative options, and provided little or no opportunity for the public and NGOs to give their views.

Pavel Cerny of J&E said: “Many of these cases show that the competent authorities are unaware of, or are ignoring, the requirements of the directive and other relevant European legislation.”

The CAAG’s letter to Brussels said the Commission should propose to the Hungarian government that the money put aside for the road projects should be diverted to “other areas so that conformity with the EU acquis is ensured”. It says such other areas would include education, energy efficiency, public transport, and urban rehabilitation, and that the problem was not specific to Hungary.

Meanwhile, NGOs working to prevent the proposed Via Baltica motorway from damaging valuable nature sites in Poland have adopted a different approach – warning the road builders that they may be liable for significant damage costs.

Five organisations based in Brussels and Poland are using the EU environmental liability directive (2004/35/EC) to warn the construction company Budimex-Dromex, which has won the tender to build part of the Via Baltica, that it may have to pay for damage caused to wetlands in the Rospuda Valley.

Magda Stoczkiewicz of CEE Bankwatch Network said: “Despite a greener alternative, the current route is guaranteed to cause environmental damage. The local authority knows this, the Polish government knows this, the Commission has verified this, so the company should be aware that it will be financially liable for the damage. We hope Budimex will reconsider its participation in the project.”

This news story is taken from the February 2007 edition of T&E Bulletin.