Brussels, 17/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 1 August, the European Commission decided to refer Spain to the Court of Justice and send reasoned opinions to four Member States (Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands) for failure to comply with the Community Environmental Impact Assessment Directive.
Spain is being referred to the Court of Justice for not having made an adequate survey before building the Oviedo-Llanera express road. The Commission is also sending the country a reasoned opinion, as it is said to have infringed Community legislation regarding three sites: - a waste storage facility at Bilbao airport (lack of public consultation); - a large illegal pig-rearing farm at Vera in the province of Almeira; - a landfill development at San Sebastian de la Gomera, in the Canary Isles.
Those countries to which the Commission has sent reasoned opinions are as follows:
- The United Kingdom: the Commission has taken two decisions. The first concerns the failure to carry out an environmental impact assessment with regard to a large multiplex cinema and leisure complex at Crystal Palace in London. The Commission also wants information on the way in which the United Kingdom applies the directive to multi-stage development consent procedures when the final stages of the decision-making process appear not to be subject to the procedure foreseen under the Directive. The second decision concerns to gaps in the United Kingdom's legislation with regard to agriculture projects mentioned in the Directive.
- Italy: this country has been singled out regarding the impact assessment of a road building project at Teramo in Abruzzo, which affects a proposed site of Community importance under the Habitat Directive. A Commission complaint investigation showed that no proper screening was carried out to determine whether the project required an environmental impact assessment.
- The Netherlands: the first decision concerns the impact assessment of dyke projects, and the second decision relates to general defects in Dutch legislation used to give effect to the Directive. The legislation does not guarantee that an impact assessment will cover all of the environmental factors mentioned in the Directive, notably concerning fauna and flora, landscape, material assets, cultural heritage and interaction between these. Nor does it guarantee that projects will be screened to judge the possible need for assessment, in accordance with the Directive, or that developers will provide the minimum information that the Directive requires.
