An EU proposal to introduce an environmental element in town and country planning provoked a row in Strasbourg and led to the Commission being accused of unnecessary bureaucratic interference in a sensitive area of national policy.
But Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard contended that the new proposal was being tabled in response to previous criticism. It had been said that an earlier environmental impact assessment directive introduced in 1985 had proved ineffective, since environmental concerns relating for example to a new road programme were often only taken into consideration at too late a stage in the decision-making procedure.
It is also argued that the existing environmental impact procedure does not take account of indirect effects such as the impact of out of town shopping centres or hypermarkets on traffic routes and the overall impact of numerous small scale building extensions. In addition, animal species can be put at risk, and environmentalists believe that insufficient attention is paid to the global impact of a large scale development, or to the contribution it can make to increasing greenhouse gases.
The new proposal would enable evaluation to be taken up at a much earlier stage by laying down guidelines which could be used in planning enquiries. The proposal was referred to the Legal Committee for an opinion.