WRITTEN QUESTION E-0028/99

by Mihail Papayannakis (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(20 January 1999)

Subject: Aitoliko Lagoon

The last few months have seen thousands of fish washed up on the shores of the Aitoliko Lagoon. The fish are killed by a lack of oxygen and the presence of hydrogen sulphide in the Lagoon; this also poses a threat to the health of local residents who regularly suffer from respiratory problems owing to the foul smell hanging over the region.

Some of the factors which have reduced the local ecosystem to its present state are as follows:

- the embankments constructed around the Lagoon which prevent the circulation of the currents so that the water is not renewed and stagnates;

- the fact that the water is full of organic matter which has led to the eutrophication of aquatic plants, the creation of organic deposits, the breakdown of microorganisms and the production of hydrogen sulphide which has accumulated in the lower levels of the Lagoon at a depth of some 10 to 30 metres;

- public works intended to assist the agricultural sector by the drainage of land and the establishment of arable areas in shallow points of the Lagoon; and

- the fact that the biological purification plant has failed to function which means that all effluent from sewage pipes finds its way into the Lagoon.

Since the Aitoliko Lagoon is a complex and sensitive ecosystem which is protected both by the RAMSAR Convention and by Community directives.

Will the Commission say:

1. Has it spent any Community funds on the construction of the biological purification plant which now lies idle?

2. Does it intend to call on the competent Greek authorities to ensure that any measure incompatible with the protection of the ecosystem in question and the species it shelters will be abrogated?

3. Does it intend to fund a regional management projet to propose suitable solutions to the above problems?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(4 March 1999)

1. As part of the operational "Environment" programme for Greece, the Commission is jointly financing the improvement and extension of the Etolikon water reclamation works. There has so far been no spending on this project, and the contractor to carry out that project is still in the process of selection. It is expected that the project will be completed by the end of 1999.

2. The Messolonghi-Etolikon lagoons form part of an extensive wetland that is classified by Greece as a special protection area (SPA) in pursuance of the "Birds" Directive (79/409/EEC)(1). That area, which has also been put forward as an important Community site in accordance with the "Habitats" Directive (92/43/EEC)(2), will thus form part of the Natura 2000 European ecological network.

Under Directive 92/43/EEC the Member States are required to take appropriate action in order to avoid deterioration of natural habitats and habitats for species protected on Natura 2000 sites, together with any significant disturbance of the species for which those sites have been designated.

The Commission will ask the Greek authorities for closer details concerning any of the problems mentioned by the Honourable Member which might affect the area's ecosystem, and also concerning the action intended.

3. The conservation of the Messolonghi-Etolikon lagoons has already been funded several times by the Community in order, inter alia, to define forms of management action for that area. In this connection a special environmental study has, in particular, been included in the operational "Environment" programme under the second Community support framework for Greece. The responsibility for carrying out those tasks falls upon the Greek authorities. In future the Commission could fund other conservation activities concerning that area, providing that those activities help to implement Community law on the subject, add value in relation to funds already granted, and be eligible under the existing financial instruments.

Moreover, the Cohesion Fund has agreed to fund the project submitted by the Greek authorities with regard to providing waste-water disposal networks and to upgrading the town of Messolonghi's biological effluent treatment works, provided that the project is compatible with the site management activities identified and initiated under the "Environment" operational programme referred to above in connection with the Aetoliko and Messolonghi lagoons.

(1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(2) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.