EU ENLARGEMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS OUTLINE CONCERNS.

Summary: Representatives of ecological organisations from Central and East European countries seeking to join the EU, held talks with Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard and Members of the European Parliament at a conference organised in Brussels on December 4 by Friends of the Earth and the Heinrich Boll Foundation. The groups were able to express their concerns regarding damage that might be done to the environment through the indelicate integration of Community policies or poor control of investment during the pre-accession phase.

The environmental groups expressed particular concern regarding: - The Common Agricultural Policy: the proposed reforms risk damaging the environment and threatening the biodiversity and social fabric of the countries in East Europe. Representatives of the candidate countries demanded assurances that subsidies will promote sustainable farming practices, while stabilising or improving biodiversity and the environment, thus maintaining the quality of rural life. - Transport policy: the environmental representatives criticised current EU transport policy as being unsustainable and unacceptable since the option of road expansion is actually generating rather than reducing transport needs. The groups recommended that pre-accession funds allocated to candidate countries should be awarded subject to sustainable national integrated transport policies drawn up, implemented and monitored with the full participation of NGOs. - Energy policy: the organisations recommended that available funds...