The new member states of central and eastern Europe brought an invaluable gift to the EU: large areas of wild or well-preserved nature, beautiful landscapes and many species that are already extinct in the old EU-15. Paradoxically, they may now lose much of this wealth because of another gift that they have in turn received from the EU: billions of euros in structural and cohesion funds. What's more, this loss is entirely unnecessary.

At a meeting in April with Bulgarian NGOs in Sofia, Environment Comissioner Stavros Dimas repeatedly stressed the need to balance economic development and environment protection, and to do so now. Yet many of the natural treasures of CEE countries including the Biebrza and Narew parks in Poland, Kresna gorge in Bulgaria, or the ecosystems of the Saaremaa Island in Estonia may soon be sacrificed to make way for reckless road projects subsidised by EU funds and the European Investment Bank. Intact stretches of the Danube, Tisza, Wisla and Morava river basins may soon be giving way to economically non-viable canals and reservoirs paid for by the EU.

A recent map produced by CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe shows a number of such planned projects in Poland, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania. Cases like these have already happened in the region, for example with the EU and EIB-supported Prague-Dresden motorway which insensitively touches a site of outstanding biological value in the Eastern Krusne Hory mountains in the Czech Republic, originally proposed as a Natura 2000 site.

However, CEE countries have so far only received peanuts in EU funds compared to what they will start absorbing from 2007 onwards. While the ten countries (including Romania and Bulgaria) received EUR 3.3bn per year in pre-accession assistance in 2000-2003, which increased to EUR 9.5bn per year in 2004-2006, they will be getting as much as EUR 22.5bn per year in structural and cohesion funds for the entire period 2007-2013.

In Poland alone, there are some 70 potential clashes between the EU's trans-European transport network - including
many new major road projects - and the Natura 2000 network of protected areas. Apart from direct clashes with biodiversity hotspots, this remorseless infrastructure build-up could also deprive CEE countries of their relatively unfragmented nature. In the Czech Republic, scientists expect the number of so-called unfragmented land areas to decrease by 25 percent by 2025 because of new roads and increasing traffic.

However, there are three pieces of good news which show that environmental damage is not necessary.

First, most of the conflicts between economic development and nature protection can be prevented. Some of the planned damaging projects identified in our map - such as the Nieszawa dam in Poland or some sections of the M3 and M0 motorways in Hungary - seem to be unnecessary: they cannot be justified even on economic grounds. In other cases, better alternatives, such as more sensitive routes, do exist. Environmental damage can thus be avoided through better planning, consultations, and properly carried out environmental assessment procedures (SEA and EIA). Governments today employ enough environmental experts to ensure that. The problem too often comes down to a lack of political will to follow such procedures.

Second, the plans for using the EU funds in the 2007-2013 period for the construction of major infrastructure projects have still to be finalised and approved. They are expected to be discussed between member states, the public and the European Commission for one more year until mid-2007. Damage can therefore still be prevented and the Commission has a clear role to play here.

Third, EU funds are also at least as big an opportunity for nature and biodiversity in central and eastern Europe as they are a threat. Thanks especially to rural development subsidies and agri-environmental programmes, CEE countries will be able to invest unprecedented amounts of money into the maintenance of species-rich meadows and pastures, the restoration of landscape features and environmentally friendly farming over the next seven years. Structural funds can also be used to support the Natura 2000 network and the long-term management of river basins under the Water Framework Directive, as well as eco-tourism and the maintenance of cultural heritage.

The protection of nature is not only crucial to halting the loss of biodiversity (a goal which the EU has subscribed to) and to ensuring the long-term sustainability of economic development, it is also an economic asset. While national parks and nature reserves attract eco-tourism and create jobs in marginal regions, the protection of floodplain forests
and meadows in the river basins reduces the damaging power of floods which have repeatedly hit the CEE region in recent years. The new member states now more than ever have a decision to make which is central to the lives of their people: do they want to be in cohesion or collision with nature?

CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe's map of potentially damaging EU funded projects:
http://www.bankwatch.org/billions/

Martin Konecny
EU Funds Coordinator
Friends of the Earth Europe - CEE Bankwatch Network