WRITTEN QUESTION E-1415/99

by Olivier Duhamel (PSE) to the Commission

(1 September 1999)

Subject: Caulerpa taxifolia

For several years a species of tropical mutant algae, Caulerpa taxifolia, has been spreading in the Mediterranean. This environmental disaster is affecting France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia in particular. Between 1992 and 1995 the Commission used the LIFE financial instrument to fund an international project to study the problem of this killer algae's spread and to predict future developments. A second tranche of funding was granted in 1995 for a follow-up programme, to be coordinated by a French scientific interest grouping based in Marseilles. In 1997 an international colloquy on controlling the spread of Caulerpa was organised.

Does the Commission have any actual results from the projects it has supported?

Does the Commission acknowledge that this is a problem that should be dealt with at European level by stepping up research and increasing the funds available for the destruction of these algae?

Given that the structural measures remain the responsibility of the Member States concerned, can the Commission not encourage the Member States more strongly to take action against this environmental threat and promote any initiative by the public authorities seeking to explore existing methods of eradication?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(8 October 1999)

The aims of the LIFE project funded between 1992 and 1995 were determine, in detail, the true distribution of caulerpa taxifolia, to monitor its evolution, and to predict its future evolution. In addition the project should help to establish the scientific and technical bases needed for its eradication. This trans-national project was complemented with Spanish and Italian partners (universities, local authorities, scientific centres).

It enabled it to be established that the spread of caulerpa taxifolia was proceeding at a rapid rate. A precise balance sheet was drawn up of the locations and areas occupied. That expansion is a threat to marine biodiversity, species diversity (and in particular certain species of algae) and biotype diversity (and in particular Posidonia beds). The toxic metabolites produced by the caulerpa taxifolia play a major direct or indirect role in the competition with the indigenous species. It is not possible to eradicate caulerpa taxifolia when the areas occupied are very large (several tens or hundreds of hectares).

The project funded between 1996 and 1999 was intended to demonstrate a strategy for controlling the spread by quickly detecting new sites and fostering public awareness, for experimenting with new eradication techniques, improving the knowledge of the possible consequences of the algae's expansion and heightening the awareness of the countries to the south of the Mediterranean that were likely to be affected in the long term by the expansion of caulerpa taxifolia.

The results of this second project are being evaluated by the Commission. This has already resulted in two symposia in 1997 and 1999 together with several initiatives by the local and national authorities concerned. In addition a proposal intended to apply the recommendations made by experts in Heraklion in March 1998 resulting from, among others, the LIFE project was recently put to the contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention on the protection of the marine environment and of the Mediterranean coastal region. The Commission supports that proposal.

One may thus conclude that it has been possible to use the LIFE projects to increase the awareness of all of the operators involved (scientists, public authorities, users of coastal areas, the public in general). Subject to new factors arising from the evaluation in progress it is now the responsibility of the Member States to provide suitable follow-up to this work by taking account of the Mediterranean scope of the matter.