Eco fear over accession treaty

Date: 13/03/03

By Karen Carstens

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have warned that the accession treaty due to be signed on 16 April threatens to lead future member states down the ecological road to ruin in its current draft form.

BirdLife International, the European Federation for Transport and Energy (T & E), the World Wide Fund for Nature and CEE Bankwatch have called on the European Commission to consider a strategic environmental assessment of transport objectives proposed for the newcomers.

Otherwise, they fear, vast swathes of natural habitat could be under threat. In particular, the groups are concerned that the EU's so-called Trans-European Network for Transport (TENS-T) will be extended for new members without any prior ecological assessment.

They claim the draft treaty accepts the TINA (Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment) report - a blueprint which has never been properly analysed - as the basis for the extended TENS-T.

"We know from western Europe that building before thinking can lead to disastrous environmental and social results," said T & E Director Beatrice Schell.

"Including the TINA projects in the accession treaty - without carrying any environmental and social impacts assessment - opens the door for a reproduction of the West's unsustainable transport system," she added.

The TINA study, completed in 1999, lays the groundwork for a future Trans-European Network in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Cyprus.

Environmental groups have warned that the accession treaty due to be signed on 16 April 2003 threatens to lead future Member States down the ecological road to ruin in its current draft form.