Drivers can be addicts, says EU official

THE EU is making "no progress" in achieving sustainable development, according to the executive director of the European Environmental Agency (EEA). "We have to call a spade a spade," Mr Domingo Jimenez Beltran said. "In the area of transport, not only is there no progress but we're actually going, backwards."

In an interview with The Irish Times he stressed that if Europe wanted to achieve sustainability it would have to adopt an accelerated environmental programme; if necessary by breaking the link between economic growth and the over consumption of energy.

"Much has been done, but it is not enough," he said. His agency's evaluation of the EU's fifth environmental action programme showed that progress had been made only in a few areas, such as the threat to the ozone layer and emissions of heavy metals and sulphur dioxide.

But Mr Jimenez Beltran insists that his agency's role in compiling reliable and credible information on environmental issues will ultimately force the EU Commission and member states to take action.

Groundwater was a particular area of concern. "It may not be a major problem in Ireland, but in Europe 65 per cent of the population gets its water from this source and it's polluted all over." He said member states "will always try to find excuses for not implementing EU legislation."

The insistence by some on pursuing unsustainable policies showed the importance of having a reliable, independent source of environmental information "so that the Council of Ministers will be better informed about the real situation".

In this context, Mr Jimenez Beltran does not regret his agency's lack of executive powers. Indeed, he believes that the regulatory role of the US Environmental Protection Agency has compromised its ability to provide sound information, other than data designed to support its own policies.

"[Jacques] Delors's vision of the European Environmental Agency was to have a separate body that would be independent and provide reliable information on the environment. The capacity of the agency to do that would be much more limited if it was involved in management, regulation and control."

He said transport was one of the agency's key priorities. A forthcoming study would challenge the thesis that motorways were safer, arguing that more roads have simply meant more cars and more drivers travelling faster.

"In 1993, there were 125,000 deaths on the roads throughout Europe and 2.3 million injuries. If you count the cost of all that, it's staggering. In some countries it comes to 4 per cent of GDP. But then, evaluating GDP is just a monetary process; it doesn't count the costs of all this loss of life."

Mr Jimenez Beltran warned that transport of goods in the EU would increase by 50 per cent in the coming years and passenger transport by 30 percent. But he said the EU Transport Commissioner, Mr Neil Kinnock, was "very aware" of this problem and was placing more emphasis on railways rather than roads.

About half of the projected increase in car use came from people driving a few kilometres to a cafe or whatever when they could just as easily have walked. "In Spain, it's an addiction, like smoking," he said. "But in Denmark, the wife of the Prime Minister comes to the agency on her bicycle."

Although it has done no work so far on the fiscal impact of "green taxes", its director said the agency hoped to be in a position to provide data on this issue at some stage. In the meantime, it would continue to provoke awareness among people and policy makers about the importance of the environment.