THE Fianna Fail MEP for Connacht/Ulster, Mr Mark Killilea, has attacked EU Commission proposals to subsidise environmental lobby groups, "not least so called animal rights groupings".
"At a time when modest funding to combat poverty and help the aged remains vetoed it is hard to understand why the Commission is so keen to fund environmental lobby groups," he said. He pointed out that the Commission already provides funding for such lobby groups, to assist with their "awareness activities".
Now, he said, it was proposed to entrench this funding by placing it on a stronger legal footing; It was "deeply questionable whether the European taxpayer should be funding "directly or indirectly such partisan organisations," he said.
Mr Killilea also took issue with a statement from the Dublin Labour MEP, Ms Bernie Malone, which attacked the Fianna Fail grouping in the Parliament for opposing attempts to update EU legislation on environmental impact assessments. Ms Malone said: "In Ireland Fianna Fail are to the forefront in rezoning large areas for residential purposes (e.g Swords). In Europe, they are against environmental impact assessments."
Mr Killilea said Fianna Fail supported the common position agreed in the Council of Ministers on the matter, and pointed out that the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, is Ireland's representative on the Environmental Council.
He said that unlike Ms Malone his party preferred to take "a careful and considered approach" to issues, and commented that her recent handling of controversy on funding for the peace process was "indicative of her less than subtle approach to serious policy issues."
