EU green action plan delayed by row over details

Date: 21/12/00

By Simon Coss

The European Commission will not produce its long-overdue EU environmental action plan until early next year, officials have confirmed.

Proposals for the Sixth Environmental Action Programme (EAP) have been repeatedly delayed and the latest target - getting them ready for a meeting of environment ministers this week - was also missed.

The Commission has been reluctant to reveal why the plan is taking so long to finalise, but insiders blame disagreements over the style of the document between the environment directorate-general and Commissioner Margot Wallström's private office.

Environmental campaigners claim the Commission recognised very late in the day that it would have to contain concrete proposals to satisfy a public demanding increasingly tough action on green issues.

"The Commission only began to work seriously on this in the summer," said one. "It was only then that the environment directorate-general realised that the plan would have to contain clearly defined targets for progress."

But the green lobby says the delay is not necessarily a bad thing. "We perceive this as an opportunity," said Christian Hey of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). "I think the plan we will now see will contain some strong targets."

The European Commission will not produce its long-overdue EU environmental action plan until early in 2001, officials have confirmed.