THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked Cyprus for information to assess the island’s compliance with EU legislation concerning environmental issues, officials said yesterday.
The EU’s Environment Directorate-General is inquiring to find out if certain strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) regarding large projects have been done after receiving reports alleging they have not.
DG Environment has sent “a letter requesting information to assess compliance with EU legislation,” an EU spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail.
More specifically the December 15 letter inquires whether strategic environmental assessments have been carried out regarding marinas, golf courses, wind farms and desalination units.
SEA is the assessment of wider environmental, social and economic impacts of proposals – at the policy, planning or programme level.
So when the government decided to build 14 golf courses, a SEA should have been done to look at the impact of all of them as a whole.
The issue was discussed on Tuesday in a meeting attended by the ministers of trade and interior, and officials from the ministry of agriculture and the state legal services.
Cyprus has until February 21 to provide the necessary explanations.
A government official involved in the case said not everything contained in the Commission’s letter were substantiated.
“We think some of the charges are unjustified,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A case in point are the desalination units, where strategic assessments have been carried out, the official said.
“The problem is not as serious as it seems in the letter.”
The Commission also claims environmental impact assessments had not be done for certain projects, which is completely wrong, the official added.
Regarding the marinas, the official said the decision to build them was taken before the law on SEAs came into force in 2005.
But Environment Commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou is not impressed with the plans.
“I am especially concerned by the fact that we are constructing marinas, which need a significant amount of materials,” Environment Commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou said.
The commissioner said no study has been done to see how much material will be needed for these projects.
“Building residences in the sea (of Limassol) will need a large amount of material,” he said.
The building materials we have are limited, the commissioner said. “We cannot dig up the whole of Cyprus and throw it in the sea.”
