WRITTEN QUESTION P-2007/00

by Reinhold Messner (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(16 June 2000)

Subject: Impact of the air traffic generated by Milan Malpensa Airport, Italy

Since October 1998, there has been a considerable increase in air traffic using the Milan Malpensa airport due to the transfer of a certain amount of air traffic from other airports (Milan Linate in particular)(1) and the addition of further traffic generated by the allocation of completely new flights made possible by the upgrading of the airport. Malpensa airport is currently authorised to handle an annual maximum of 12 million passengers(2). The TRN (trans-European network) Malpensa enlargement project of 1993, which transformed the airport from a point to point to a hub and provided for traffic to be increased to up to 24 million passengers per year and 1,25 million tonnes of goods per year, obviously constitutes a substantial modification of the original 1987 project and so is subject to the requirement for a environmental impact assessment under the terms of Directive 85/337/EEC(3). The plan put forward on 25 October 1998 for the transfer of all traffic from Linate to Malpensa airport was vetoed at the time by the Commission. Linate now retains one-third of the traffic (5.5 million passengers per year) whilst the remaining two-thirds (11 million passengers per year), in addition to the existing 6 to 7 million passengers, have increased Malpensa's traffic to 17 to 18 million passengers per year. This is a flagrant breach of the applicable legislation, which explicitly calls for an environmental impact assessment to be carried out in the case of projects to enlarge existing facilities; the procedure in question, which was belatedly begun in July 1998, has not yet been completed. The Italian government has sought to deny the evidence of these statistics in its dealings with the Commission, whilst actually making provision for the remaining traffic to be transferred from Linate to Malpensa from 25 October 1999(4). This measure has been deferred since, meanwhile, the Commune of Milan successfully requested that the traffic using Linate be maintained whilst the Ministry of the Environment(5) took a negative view of the environmental impact study submitted by SEA(6) in support of the latest increase in the number of flights. The latest developments include the decision of 13 December 1999 by the Prime Minister, Mr d'Alema, which did not take into due account the Ministry of Environment decree, the subsequent blocking of that measure by the Commission, and finally the order issued by the Ministry of Transport for the partial transfer of flights(7), against which the airlines are appealing, mainly on the grounds that it infringes the competition rules.

Does the Commission not agree that, as there has been an obvious infringement of Directive 85/377/EEC, any provision which involves an increase in air traffic in terms of passengers and goods to above the levels currently authorised (12 million passengers per year and 300 000 tonnes of goods per year) should be halted until all the requirements laid down for the environmental impact assessment procedure have been duly and fully met?

(1) Cf. Ministry of Transport decree DM 05/07/96 No 46-T and DM 23/10/97 No 57-T.

(2) Cf. Ministry of Transport decree No 903/1987.

(3) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985, p. 40.

(4) Cf. Ministry of Transport decree DM 09/10/98 No 101-T.

(5) Cf. Ministry of Environment decree DM 25/11/99.

(6) The company managing the airport.

(7) Cf. Ministry of Transport decree of March 2000.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(20 July 2000)

On the basis of the information available to the Commission, no major changes had been made to the project(1) (airport infrastructure) since its approval in 1987 (at which time the directive was not applicable in Member States). According to Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) could only be required prior to certain developments of the airport infrastructure(2).

The transformation of Malpensa airport into a hub airport in 1993 did not result in infrastructure modifications. An increase in air traffic in terms of passengers and goods cannot be considered as a project under Directive 85/337/EEC and, consequently, does not need to be made the subject of an environmental impact assessment.

Under Community law, it is not relevant whether Member States apply provisions of their internal law which go beyond those of a Community directive, provided that they are not breaching other Community laws.

(1) For the purposes of Directive 85/337/EEC, project means the execution of construction works or of other installation or schemes; other interventions in the natural surroundings and landscape including those involving the extraction of mineral resources (Article 1).

(2) Article 2.1 of Directive 85/337/EEC.