WRITTEN QUESTION P-3431/01

by Pere Esteve (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 December 2001)

Subject: Sand extraction in the Balearic Islands

One of the worst storms ever to hit the Balearic Islands has caused a huge amount of sand to be lost from the beaches. The Spanish Environment Ministry has announced that sand is to be extracted off the islands' coastline: specifically, from the sandbanks located off the coast at Banyalbufar (Majorca) and to the north of Ibiza.

This prospect has provoked alarm amongst scientists and community representatives on the grounds that the loss of sand which has occurred on certain beaches is a temporary phenomenon: the beaches will recover in a few months' time if conditions are at all favourable and if there is no countervailing human activity. Most of the sand which has disappeared is lying just a short distance off the beach (in the water) and it will return when the wave pattern is suitable. It should also be pointed out that artificial regeneration is a temporary, expensive and highly damaging solution to the problem. According to scientists, the various forms of damage include the destruction of demersal communities living in the sandbanks which are due to be dredged, thereby affecting certain species which are of particular value to fishermen; drastic changes in the ecological conditions prevailing on the dredged seabed, with the creation of ridges and hollows and the replacement of the original biological communities by others; the muddying of the waters in the extraction area, which is detrimental to species which require very clear waters, such as Posidonia oceanica, and the burial of natural communities in the area in which the sand is to be deposited, which in certain cases will affect protected flora communities (Posidonia).

In view of the fact that environmental policy consists (as stated in Directive 85/337/EEC(1)) in preventing damage to the environment rather than remedying it at a later stage, would the Commission say whether or not

it is aware of the project described above? Is it intending to warn the Spanish authorities regarding the impact which such extraction would have on the ecosystem of the two areas concerned, bearing in mind Directive 85/337/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment?

It should be recalled that, in 1994, the Spanish government department responsible for coasts had to back down on a similar project in Cala Agulla (Majorca), since the environmental impact study carried out by the Spanish Government was seriously flawed: mistakes in the maps drawn up led to sand being extracted in areas colonised by posidonia.

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

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(11 January 2002)

The Commission was not aware of the facts raised by the Honourable Member.

Projects consisting in the extraction of sand, such as the one mentioned by the Honourable Member, may fall within the scope of Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985(1), as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC of 3 March 1997, on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(2), since they are listed in Annex II thereof point 2 c), extraction of minerals by marine or fluvial dredging.

Pursuant to the above Directive, Member States shall determine through a case-by-case examination, thresholds or criteria or a combination of both approaches whether a project listed in Annex II shall be made subject to an assessment in accordance with articles 5-10 of the Directive. For this purpose, Member States shall take into account the selection criteria set out in Annex III of the Directive, which refer to the characteristics of the project, its location and the characteristics of the potential impact. Member States shall ensure that the determination made by the competent authorities is made available to the public.

As the Honourable Member requests, the Commission intends to remind the Spanish authorities of the provisions of the above mentioned Council Directives in order to ensure that they are taken into account, should a concrete project result from the announcement of the Spanish Environment Ministry.

(1) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.

(2) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997.