Brussels, 19/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to continue legal infringement procedures against Spain for breaches of EU environmental legislation, referring it to the European Court of Justice in two cases involving wild bird protection (Directive 79/409/EEC) and protection of the Earth's ozone layer (Directive 79/409/EEC). Spain has also received two final warnings before possible Court referrals for failure to transpose into its national legislation two EU Directives: the first concerns public access to information on the environment held by public authorities (Directive 2003/4/EC), and the second is Directive 2001/42/EC aimed at assessing the environmental effects of a wide range of plans and programmes (Strategic Environment Assessment).
Protection of wild birds: One case relates to a planned irrigation project in the province of Lleida in Catalonia that would severely affect an area hosting a number of steppe bird species protected under EU law, including Bonelli's Eagle, the Stone Curlew, the Black-bellied Sandgrouse, the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, the Dupont's Lark and the Lesser Grey Shrike. In the EU's Birds Directive of 1979, they are listed as particularly threatened and in need of special conservation measures and Spain should have classified the habitats of these steppe birds as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) under the Directive, but has failed to do so. The Commission has even referred Spain to the European Court of Justice on a previous occasion for the lack of sufficient designation of SPAs at a national level! (Court of Justice Case 235/04).
After several warnings, Spain has still failed to comply with the EU Regulation on substances that deplete the ozone layer, not meeting all the reporting requirements (on recovery, recycling, reclamation and destruction of controlled substances that destroy the ozone layer).