WRITTEN QUESTION E-2177/99

by Monica Frassoni (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(29 November 1999)

Subject: Property speculation at Is Arenas

The protected area in the locality of Is Arenas (Oristano, Sardinia) is entered on the register of sites of Community importance coming within the Natura 2000 network (Bioitaly) under site code ITB 002228 pursuant to the directive on natural habitats, Directive 92/43(1), and was funded by LIFE-Natura in 1995. That area, comprising wooded coastal sand dunes of great importance, is also subject to the following national or regional restrictions: a landscape planning restriction pursuant to Article 7 of Law 1497/1939, Ministerial Decree 27.8.1980 and Article 1 of Law 431/1985; a restriction on change of use and a requirement to comply with the crop-planting and conservation plan laid down in Royal Decree Law 3267/1923 (reform and amendment of the legislation on woodlands); and a hydrogeological restriction pursuant to Article 17 of Law 215 13.2.1993. It is also an area coming within the proposal for the demarcation of the boundaries of the Sinis-Montiferru regional nature park, table A, annexed to Regional Law 31/89. Despite these protective restrictions, in 1997 the region of Sardinia signed a Programme Agreement with the Is Arenas company for the construction of a tourist complex involving half a million cubic metres of concrete, 222 900 m3 of which is now being built, and has issued various planning permissions leading in the first instance to the felling of approximately 10 000 trees. The whole project, which is to consist of a residential tourist village for more than 6 000 people including service roads, golf courses and other facilities, does not appear to have undergone an environmental impact assessment pursuant to Directives 85/337/EEC(2) and 97/11/EC(3). The Court of Justice recently ruled that in the case of projects listed in Annex II to the above-mentioned directives, and the projects planned in Is Arenas come within that annex, a Member State does not have the power to exclude or exempt a project from the environmental impact assessment procedure where it has significant effects on the environment, by virtue inter alia of its nature, size or location(4).

Does the Commission believe that these decisions are compatible with the protection which is intended to be conferred on the area by including it in the Natura 2000 network? Does not this project nullify the effects of the Community funds provided through LIFE-Natura for the purpose of promoting sustainable development in the area? Have the requirements stemming from the directives on environmental impact assessment been complied with, especially in the light of the above-mentioned judgment of the Court of Justice? Are projects scheduled in that Programme Agreement co-funded by the Structural Funds? If so, to what extent and for what measures specifically?

(1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992, p. 7.

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

(3) OJ L 73, 14.3.1997, p. 5.

(4) Judgment of 16.9.1999 in Case C-435/97.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(20 January 2000)

The case, to which the Honourable Member refers, has already been drawn to the attention of the Commission. It concerns a project for the construction of a holiday village which is argued to be within the scope of Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment and to have a significant effect on certain proposed sites of Community interest (pSCI, under Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora), and special protection areas (SPA, under Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds(1)).

The Commission is waiting for the written and detailed information requested from the Italian authorities. This information is necessary in order to assess the case. The Commission will take the appropriate steps in order to ensure the observance of Community law.

The project is not the subject of a co-financing arrangement under the structural funds.

(1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.