Bridge given go-ahead despite criticism from environmental lobbies

Date: 25/07/1996

FUNDING for Portugal's Tagus Bridge project is back on track following agreement between the European Commission and Lisbon on tougher environmental standards.

But 'green' lobbies are far from satisfied with what Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies described as a “test case for sustainable development”. They claim the changes made do not go nearly far enough to guarantee respect for environmental standards.

After months of manoeuvring and suggestions that EU money from the Cohesion Fund would be withheld from the project, the Commission finalised an accord with the Portuguese government in a memorandum of understanding signed last week.

This states that the special protection area (SPA) around the site should be increased by 400 hectares and be subject to a precise management plan.

But a spokesman from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) claimed that increasing the 44,000 hectare site by just 400 hectares would make little significant difference.

Lisbon is also committed to reinforcing the staffing and resources of the monitoring body set up to follow the progress of the work and ensuring the strict adherence to the environmental standards set out in the financing decision taken back in December 1994.

Portugal will guarantee that urban development around the site fully respects both national and EU green laws. Measures will also be undertaken to control construction during the nesting season of several rare bird species and to fence off the area's salt-pan during both the construction and operation of the bridge.

Despite Wulf-Mathies' assurance that the deal had been reached “in a spirit of partnership and mutual understanding”, the path to its signature has been far from smooth.

Under extreme pressure from green lobbies, led by the WWF and Portugal's Liga para a Proteccao de Natureza (LPN), the Commission was forced to accept that several standards set out in the original decision to grant Portugal 311 million ecu from the Cohesion Fund had been seriously breached.

Environmental groups have pledged to follow future developments to ensure that the deal does, as Wulf-Mathies claims, put “the future on a sound basis”.

The Commissioner has set great store by tightening green rules and rejigging the division of cohesion fund money to ensure that 50&percent; of it goes directly to environmental projects.

It was, therefore, a cause of acute embarrassment to the Commission that such a high-profile construction project using so much Union money made regular appearances in the media in reports about the damage being done to natural habitats.

Despite the shortcomings of the latest plan, a WWF official expressed hope that it would act as “a warning shot for future projects” including the Alqueva Dam and a project in Greece.

Green groups were upset about the Tagus project because it passes through an SPA covered by the 1979 Wild Birds Directive. They claim the route chosen was the only one of several proposals which actually passed through the protected area.

Portugal is expected to receive 60 million ecu from the Union in September or October, with a further 50 million ecu to follow once construction work is over.

Unfortunately for Wulf-Mathies, she was unable to add the finishing touches to the deal without incurring the wrath of the European Parliament. The Commissioner flatly refused MEPs' demands that the memorandum be made available to the environment committee before it was formally signed and sealed.

The WWF has urged the Commission to speed up its infraction procedures and take member states to court as soon as possible for not complying with the 1991 Habitats Directive.

In a new report, the WWF claims that more than two years after the deadline for transposing the directive into national law, only France, Spain, Sweden and the UK have adopted new legal measures expressly referring to the Habitats Directive and no member state has submitted a definitive list of special areas of conservation.