EU funds at risk over delays on wildlife deadlines

The European Commission has warned the Government that it may not be able to approve any Irish structural or Cohesion funding projects for next year until Ireland complies with key wildlife conservation obligations.

In a letter to the Irish Ambassador to the EU, Mr Denis O'Leary, the outgoing Regional Affairs and Environment Commissioners, Ms Monika Wulf-Mathies and Ms Ritt Bjerregaard respectively, warn that the failure to designate sites in Ireland for protection under the 1992 Habitats Directive means the Commission will be unable to assess whether projects are in conformity with EU rules.

The requirement that all structural and Cohesion funding programmes be vetted and approved by the Environment Directorate for compliance with EU environmental rules has been strengthened in new funding rules for Agenda 2000.

Projects which cannot be cleared will simply "sit in the doldrums unable to proceed", in the words of one Commission source.

The decision to get tough with Ireland, and to send similar letters to Germany, France, the Netherlands and Portugal, was warmly welcomed yesterday by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). Its European policy officer, Mr Tony Long, warned that Ireland could pay a heavy price for flouting the Habitats Directive.

"The Commission's action sets a very clear and important precedent," he said."It will make all countries speed up their implementation of environmental legislation including the Habitats Directive."

Officials in the Commission say that so far Ireland has not yet submitted any funding projects for approval for next year but is expected to do so over the next six months, and they are not convinced that it will have adequately complied with the directive by then.

They do not rule out significant hold-ups in the flow of the £2.9 billion in structural and Cohesion funds Ireland is due to receive in the 2000-2006 period.

The Habitats Directive, following a similar directive for wild birds, sets out to list vulnerable flora and fauna and to provide a common framework for their protection.

The idea is to create a network, Natura 2000, of special areas of conservation which will enable endangered species or habitats with specific and unique "biogeographical characteristics" to sustain themselves.

Within each area, member-states are obliged to set out plans to protect against deleterious development, and such constraints have not been universally welcomed by farmers or developers.

National lists of sites were supposed to have been provided initially by 1995 and then by June 1998, and the failure of Ireland to submit its list is now holding up the establishment of the European network and complicating the payment of EU funds. To date the Government has listed a mere 114 sites, or 2.6 per cent of the territory of the State, for special protection. Yet the Government itself has admitted to the EU that it believes some 370 sites should be protected, and its failure to complete the list has already prompted legal action in the European Court of Justice where the Commission lodged its case against Ireland in February.

Countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have listed between 10 and 15 per cent of their national territory.

Yesterday a statement from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands insisted that it was honouring recent undertakings on the issue.

"Earlier this year at a meeting in Brussels," the statement said, "the Minister, Ms Sile de Valera, entered into a programme for transmission of the sites to the Commission (i.e. 95 per cent of the sites to be submitted by the end of July). The Department is happy that this programme is being adhered to."

Commission sources say, however, that the programme referred to relates to only one of three categories of sites, viz priority habitats such as raised bogs, limestone pavements like the Burren and vulnerable sand dunes.

The Commission, the source says, expects significant progress in listing the other two categories, non-priority sites and marine sites on which there has been far less progress and, to date, no public consultations. Public consultations on the priority sites have taken two years.

Although the Commission accepts that the broad scope of the Government's intentions is adequate, there are still reservations. For example, Brussels insists that more must be done for raised bogs and for salmon habitats.

Mr Long describes the Habitats Directive as "potentially the most significant initiative for nature conservation in Europe in 50 years. It is a scandal it is not being implemented. Every single deadline has been missed since the directive was agreed in 1992.

"In the meantime, areas which should be conserved are being threatened by road and dam building, over-grazing, drainage and other perils."