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Making life better for people by inspiring solutions to environmental problems

Brussels urged to use its muscles.

Friends of the Earth's Director, John Woods, is travelling to Brussels today to press the European Commission to get tough with Northern Ireland on its failure to comply with European law on the environment.

Mr Woods will be meeting the Commission's most senior environmental officials [1] who are handling Friends of the Earth's formal complaints on sewage pollution, illegal dumps and trawling in Strangford Lough [2]. He will be pressing them to accelerate the legal process which could see Northern Ireland face enormous fines, perhaps in excess of £100,000 per day.

Also on the agenda is the thorny issue of crown immunity which means that Water Service, Northern Ireland's biggest polluter, cannot be prosecuted for its serial breaches of the law. Mr Woods said:

"The only thing that is stopping Northern Ireland from descending into a state of near environmental anarchy is pressure from Europe. Not only is environmental law not being enforced but we do not even possess all the legal mechanisms necessary to do so. I shall be discussing with the Commission how Northern Ireland can be taken to the European Court for failing to regulate Water Service."

While not wishing to see fines imposed on Northern Ireland, Friends of the Earth believes that the threat of fines is the main driver for compliance with European environmental law.

That Friends of the Earth must turn to Europe to ensure effective environmental protection is, says John Woods, evidence of the need for an independent Environmental Protection Agency:

"It's unacceptable that the job of environmental protection falls to organisations such as mine and a handful of officials in Europe [3]. It's time DOE admitted that it's not up to the challenge and handed their responsibility for environmental regulation over to an independent agency."

Notes

[1] (back) Meeting with Catherine Day, Director General, Environment, European Commission.

[2] (back) Friends of the Earth has made official complaints to the European Commission under the
Urban Waste Water Treatment (PDF† ), Waste Framework (PDF† ) and Habitats Directives (PDF† ).

[3] Following the visit the Commission wrote to DOE and DARD reminding them of their obligations under the Habitats Directive and a ban on trawling and dredging has now been imposed

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.