National spending plans under renewed fire 

40 projects funded through EU structural and cohesion funds in the member states which joined the bloc in 2004 - notably waste incineration plants, motorways and water management projects - are "harmful" and "wholly unnecessary" given alternative possibilities, according to Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) and CEE Bankwatch Network.

"EU funding support for central and eastern European countries is necessary and welcome. But if the money drives reckless developments and environmental destruction, its potential to deliver benefits is being wasted," said Martin Konecny, FoEE's EU funds coordinator.

The NGOs have produced an online map highlighting the projects they consider to be harmful to ecosystems and communities. Poland and the Czech Republic's controversial Via Baltica motorway, another motorway connecting Brno in the Czech Republic with Vienna and nine Polish waste incineration plants are cited as particularly damaging, dubbing them 'RegioScar' projects. 

The Commission meanwhile has awarded the label 'RegioStar' to those EU-funded projects it considers to be exemplary in "promoting sustainable development and knowledge-based regional economies".

Last week (20 February) Danuta Hübner, the EU's commissioner for regional policy, also hailed the amount of money being spent on renewable energies through the bloc's cohesion fund, although most of the projects listed were in regions under the jurisdiction of EU-15 member states. 

EU project spending to boost development in regions and new member states has been previously criticised by NGOs, who argue that the bloc's spending priorities are poorly aligned with current ambitions to reduce the CO2 emissions of the EU by 20% by 2020 (see EurActiv 10/07/07).

The Commission says it is aware of the problem. But re-aligning spending priorities towards sustainable development is "very much a bottom-up process which comes from the member states. And very often these types of top-level decisions in terms of policy re-orientation have a trickle-down effect which takes three to four years," said Matthias Ruete, director-general of the EU's energy and transport directorate, speaking to EurActiv in an October 2007 interview.