Barnier steps up fight to protect nature

Date: 30/03/2000

By Gareth Harding

THE European Commission has issued its starkest-ever warning to EU governments that they risk losing billions of euro of regional funds if they do not comply fully with key nature protection laws.

The move is a sign of the Commission's growing frustration over the failure of member states to abide by the terms of two of the Union's most important - but also most frequently abused - pieces of environmental legislation.

Regional Affairs Commissioner Michel Barnier plans to write to member states in the next few weeks urging them to supply the Commission with a list of protected sites, as required under rules laid down in the 1979 birds directive and the 1992 legislation on habitats "as soon as possible".

EU governments should have supplied the Commission with details of the areas they intended to protect under the 'Natura 2000' scheme by 1995, but Germany, Ireland and Portugal have not yet done so and a further seven countries have been criticised for providing incomplete lists.

Barnier will tell errant member states that their plans for spending EU grants, which are currently being drawn up in national capitals, "must include clear and irrevocable" pledges to ensure that they are consistent with the protection of sites covered by Natura 2000.

The regional affairs supremo also wants member states to provide a "formal guarantee" that that they will not allow designated sites to deteriorate during the seven-year period covered by the existing budget for the Union's structural funds, which co-finance the scheme.

If governments fail to comply with the Commission's demands, the EU executive could block the payments of funds from Union coffers, demand that money already handed over be refunded or launch further legal proceedings in the European Court of Justice - putting at risk almost €30 billion of aid to the EU's poorest regions.

Commission officials have made it clear that they would prefer to tackle the problem now, when member states are considering how best to spend the funds, instead of acting later. "It seems stupid to give money and then take it back," said a spokeswoman for Barnier.

MEPs have given their support to the Commission's get-tough approach. In a resolution adopted at their plenary session earlier this month, they called on the Union executive to "ensure EU-funded programmes do not damage or destroy actual or potential protected sites" and urged the Commission to stand by its threat to withhold funds.

UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies said the threat from Barnier and Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström had "put a bomb under governments throughout Europe", adding: "Under this pressure, they have done more in the past six months to identify special areas of conservation than in the past six years."

The European Commission has issued its starkest-ever warning to EU governments that they risk losing billions of euro of regional funds if they do not comply fully with key nature protection laws.