Representatives Encouraged by Meeting
Today, Monday November 4th, a number of groups representing wind farm campaigners in Donegal and the Midlands held a lengthy and positive meeting with senior officials at the Irish Desk in the Environment Directorate of the European Commission.
This meeting was facilitated by Marian Harkin MEP and was a timely opportunity to appraise the European Commission of the current plans regarding the development of significant and very substantial wind farms in many different parts of Ireland.
Four senior members of the Commission engaged with the campaigners on issues such as access to justice and on how citizens and communities could influence the planning process. Wide ranging discussions were also held on recent court judgements against Ireland on the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and the Commission requested examples in Ireland of the continuing non-compliance with the Directive. Those present undertook to supply the evidence which will be assessed by the Commission and which could lead to the re-opening of the case against Ireland in regard to proper evaluation of an Environmental Impact Assessment.
All members of the delegation expressed satisfaction with the meeting and with the practical and helpful suggestions of the Commission. Marian Harkin said: "Today was the start of a process; it was an opportunity for groups to see what the European Commission could and could not do. While there is no European legislation to assist Community groups on funding to hire experts to assess the various planning proposals it was suggested that a complaint to the Aarhus Compliance Committee may prove useful. Where public participation and public access to information was prohibitively expensive we also had a very useful discussion on how to input into the consultation process announced recently by Minister Pat Rabbitte. This would ensure that issues like a health impact assessment and the cumulative effects of so many wind farm applications would be fully taken into consideration".
"There is no silver bullet here, no one piece of European legislation to help ensure we have a proper planning framework in place to deal with the unprecedented level of wind farm applications that if successful, will turn large parts of the country into zones for industrial wind farming. However EU legislation allows citizens to be part of the process and will assist us in helping to ensure this becomes a reality not merely a box-ticking exercise".
"One of the major problems in Ireland is that the process of wind farm construction is developer led and that agreements with the U.K. are being put in place for the export of wind power before we have any strategic policy debate about renewable energy. It looks as if most decisions have already been taken and now we are trying to fit these into a planning process that is not fit for purpose. The most positive outcome from today's discussion was that we have alerted the Commission to the reality of the situation in Ireland and that they are very supportive of our efforts to ensure that EU legislation is fully implemented. We are now hopeful that this will ensure meaningful public participation and a planning framework that takes all aspects from human health to visual amenity into consideration. This is a process that will take a number of years but today we ensured that we are better equipped, better informed and plugged into the system" Marian Harkin concluded.
Note: the groups represented at the discussions with European Commission officials were:-
• Glenties Windfarm Information Group
• Lakelands Windfarm Information Group
• Midlands Alliance
• People Over Wind
