§ Lord Clinton-Daviesasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will give a resumé of the correspondence and meetings between European Commission officials and the Environment Commissioner, and officials of the Department of Transport and the Secretary of State for Transport concerning the application of the environmental impact assessment directive on those transport issues; which gave rise to the Article 169 letters sent by the European Commission to the Secretary of State on or about 19th October 1991.
§ Lord Brabazon of TaraInformal letters were received from the Commission relating to complaints made to them in respect of:
- the East London River Crossing (October 1989);
WA 22 - the Kings Cross Channel Tunnel rail terminal (January 1990);
- the Hackney-M.11 Link Road (June 1990); and
- the M.3 Motorway (March 1991).
A reply was sent promptly to each letter and there was no further inquiry from the Commission.
More recently there have been press reports that the Commission was about to take some sort of action against the UK in relation to the three road schemes. In August, a private individual in the UK sent the Department a letter he had received from a Commission official saying that action was in prospect. Following a telephone discussion between my right honourable friend and Commissioner di Meana department officials met officials of DG XI on 16th October. Discussion covered the legal interpretation of Directive 85/337, and the methods of environmental assessment of road schemes used in this country.
Following receipt of the Article 169 letter, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister wrote to M. Delors about the way the Commission handled this matter, and has received a satisfactory reply.