Brussels, 10 March 2003: The draft Accession Treaty (1), which has been published almost unnoticed, gives rise to worries that the official green light is being given to environmentally damaging transport planning in the Accession Countries. Environmental organisations BirdLife International, European Federation for Transport and Energy (T&E), WWF and CEE Bankwatch/FoEE are concerned that the new Trans-European Network for Transport (TENs-T) will be extended to the Accession Countries without any previous ecological and social assessment.

The key issue of concern is the fact that the draft treaty accepts the blueprint of the TINA (2) report as a basis for the extended TEN-T, blueprint which has never been properly analyzed. Although extending the TENs-T to the Accession Countries is a logical consequence of enlargement, this should happen in an open and transparent way that fully complies with all the 'aquis communitaire' and specifically the EU environmental legislation soon to be in force in the new Member States.

The inclusion of environmentally damaging projects in the Accession countries in the priority list of the TENs-T revision could spell the end of sustainable transport systems with irreversible environmental impacts. "We know from Western Europe that building before thinking can lead to disastrous environmental and social results," said Beatrice Schell, Director of T&E." Including the TINA projects in the Accession Treaty without carrying any environmental and social impacts assessment opens the door for a reproduction of the West's unsustainable transport system."

Studies by WWF, BirdLife and CEE Bankwatch (3) show that many of the proposed routes in the Accession Countries will severely damage sites to be protected under the EU Natura 2000 network of protected areas, including Important Bird Areas. It is also difficult to envisage how listed projects, such as inland waterways, will comply with the obligations of the Water Framework Directive regarding good ecological water status.

" All Candidate Countries already report threats to potential Natura 2000 sites," said Sandra Jen from WWF European Policy Office." Projects related to the extensions of the TENS-T include the development of the planned Danube-Oder-Elbe canal, which threatens a total of 26 potential Natura 2000 sites in Poland alone. EU funds are also considered to develop motorway infrastructure in Bulgaria and Poland, again threatening future NATURA 2000 sites. "We already have examples of transport projects backed by EU money that clash with very valuable areas. The new maps will only make the situation worse" said Magda Stoczkiewicz from CEE Bankwatch.

"Our assessment of the TINA network concluded that no less than one-fifth of all Important Bird Areas are likely to be affected by transport network developments," comments Zoltán Waliczky from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK Partner of BirdLife International). "Since then even more candidate sites for Natura 2000 status have been identified by us and other organisations in the accession countries. If no changes are made to the transport corridors identified as most damaging to these sites, this will have disastrous consequences for nature."

BirdLife International, T&E, WWF and CEE Bankwatch call upon the European Commission to adopt strong guidelines for the TEN-T. Following the European Parliament’s Report of last year, the Commssion should consider an Strategic Environmental Assessment of the whole transport network and should carry it out as a priority, before any new projects are added on the TEN-T priority list.

For further informations please contact:
* Ellen Townsend, WWF European Policy Office, Tel +32-(0)2-740 0921, e-mail: ETownsend@wwfepo.org
* Magda Stoczkiewicz, CEE Bankwatch, GSM: + 31 652 41 03 23.

Notes to the Editor:

(1) Electronic version available at: www.europarl.eu.int/enlargement/access_draft_en.htm

(2) TINA FINAL REPORT - Identification of the network components for a future Trans-European Transport Network in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Cyprus. Contents of the Report:
In October 1999 the Final TINA Report was issued, describing the whole process and the up-to-date results. http://www.tinavienna.at/treport.htm

(3) *Progress on Preparation for Natura 2000 in Future EU Member States, WWF January 2003, available at www.panda.org/epo
*An Assessment of the potential impact of the TINA Network in IBAs (Important Bird Areas) in the Accession Countries, BirdLife International May 2001.
* Billions for Sustainability? - Lessons learned from the use of the pre-accession finds, CEEBankwatch/FoE, November 2002 available at: www.bankwatch.org/publications

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