Brussels, 20/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - Five NGOs warn the European Commission about the environmental consequences that could result from development of the transeuropean transport network (TEN-T) in candidate countries. In a report recently published, "Conflict Areas between the TEN-T and Nature Conservation", these organisations consider that some projects selected by the Van Miert Group for developing TEN-T with a view to EU enlargement are incompatible with the Community legislation "Natura 2000" on protection of habitat and wildlife within the EU.
In their report, the five NGOs (International Birdlife, CEE Bankwatch Network, Friends of the Earth Europe, Transport and Environment and WWF) point to six specific projects which, in their view, threaten at least 29 existing or future Natura 2000 sites that protect a large number of plants or animal species: - the construction of a motorway linking Greece to Bulgaria crossing the Kresna Gorge in Bulgaria; - the construction of a D47 motorway and a road R35 to link the Czech Republic to Poland on one hand and Germany on the other; - the development of motorways in Hungary; - the construction of the "Via Baltica" in Poland; - the creation of canals to take up the bottlenecks on the Rhine-Main-Danube. Two of these projects are of particular concern to the five organisations as they are part of the priority projects for which reconstruction work is to start before 2010: the motorway crossing the Kresna Gorge in Bulgaria and the Via Baltica in Poland. The five NGOs therefore call upon the Commission to make an environment impact assessment in cooperation with the Member states on the whole of the TEN-T before granting Community funds for these projects.
EUROPE recalls that the Commission will be presenting a proposal of decision this autumn aimed at revising the TEN-T guidelines with a view to enlargement. For this, it will base its proposal on the report by the Van Miert Group, handed over on 30 June and which had been commissioned for selection of projects eligible for Community funding (EUROPE of 1 July, p;7).