Bridge project sparks wildlife row

Date: 07/03/1996

THE European Commission is threatening to pull the plug on funding for a major bridge project in Portugal, amid evidence that contractors are failing to obey strict environmental guidelines.

The controversy over the new road bridge over the River Tagus - one-third financed from the Cohesion Fund - has also served to bring into sharper focus general shortcomings in the implementation of natural habitat legislation across the EU.

Regional Policy Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies has written to the Portuguese government urging that standards are tightened and threatening to cut off the remaining Cohesion Fund payments.

But environmental campaigners want her to take tougher action.

“Instead of talking, Wulf-Mathies should do something to prove that she's the 'green' Commissioner she claims to be,” said an official at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Already unhappy with the parameters of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out on the site, WWF and the Liga para a Proteccao de Natureza (LPN) have launched a concerted campaign to force the Lusoponte construction consortium to obey the rules.

Some 170 million ecu of the 311 million ecu earmarked for the project from EU funds has already been paid out. The rest of the money is coming from the European Investment Bank and the Portuguese government, who are co-financing the 12-kilometre, six-lane bridge spanning the Tagus Estuary, one of the country's most important wetlands and a Special Protection Area under the 1979 Wild Birds Directive.

Environmental campaigners claim to have documentary and video evidence of at least six violations of the EIA, which are causing untold damage to a crucial breeding and resting area for migrating birds.

Their anger has been sharpened by their claim that the route chosen for the bridge was the only one of several proposals which actually passed directly through the protected area.

“It's ironic that the EU has designated this as an area to be protected and now EU money is helping to build a road through it with a minimum of environmental protection,” said a WWF campaigner.

They are now fearful that similar problems could affect other high profile and expensive Cohesion Fund projects, including the Alqueva Dam in Portugal and the proposed diversion of Greece's Acholoos river.

“These cohesion projects are the biggest single threat to Europe's environment apart from the Common Agricultural Policy,” claimed one lobbyist.

The environmental lobby also believes the Tagus bridge case has revealed a split between Directorate-General XVI, which is responsible for the Cohesion Fund, and DGXI (environment). “Although DGXI gave a positive opinion on the EIA, they are at least taking a tougher line than DGXVI,” commented a WWF official.

Officials in DGXI stressed that no deadline had been set for Lisbon to respond to the Commission's letter, but admitted that there were problems.

The latest controversy has thrown into sharp focus the difficulties the Commission faces in cajoling member states into putting their responsibilities under EU natural habitats legislation into practice.

As Portugal faces possible action for malpractice on one particular project, DGXI is preparing infraction proceedings against a number of member states for delays in implementing the 1991 Habitats Directive, a much more ambitious undertaking than the earlier Wild Birds Directive.

“We'd prefer not to go that way, but if necessary we will have to set an example in Court to establish jurisprudence,” said a senior official.