DUBLIN, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission has requested the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to impose a heavy fine on Ireland for its failure to comply with a previous ruling of the court by not properly carrying out an environmental impact assessment of a wind farm built in the country, reported local media RTE on Thursday.
According to the report, the European Commission has proposed CJEU to impose a minimum lump sum payment of 1.685 million euros (2.09 million U.S. dollars) in addition to a daily penalty of 12,264 euros if full compliance is not achieved by the date when the court issues its ruling.
In response to this, the Irish Department of the Environment said that it had noted the commission's request in respect of the environmental impact assessment for the wind farm in the question and the Irish authorities have been in regular communication with the commission on the matter and remain committed to ensuring that an appropriate environmental review takes place.
The wind farm targeted by the European Commission refers to the Derrybrien wind farm built more than 13 years ago in Ireland's western coastal county of Galway. CJEU ruled in 2008 that Ireland had failed to carry out an environmental impact assessment for the wind farm, the largest of its kind in the country and also one of the largest in the EU.
The construction of the wind farm required removal of large areas of forest and extraction of peat up to 5.5-meter deep on the top of a mountain where the wind farm is located, which allegedly resulted in a 2-km-long environmentally devastating landslide in October 2003.
"The scale of the development and its sensitive moorland hilltop location means that its operation continues to have an impact locally," said the European Commission, adding that the site could still benefit from mitigation and remediation measures, but these can only be identified after an environmental impact assessment has been done.
"Ireland must, therefore, ensure that this happens," said the commission.
The Electricity Supply Board, a 95-percent-government-owned power supplier in Ireland, which is related to the construction of the Derrybien wind farm, said that following the CJEU ruling in 2008 it had agreed to participate in an independent non-statutory, voluntary environmental review of the wind farm and this process is still under way and some environmental studies have already been carried out.
Impact assessments of certain public and private projects on the environment are required under the EU rules before construction is allowed to commence.
Under Article 260 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), if a member state has not taken the necessary measures to comply with a judgment of the Court of Justice, as is the case in the Derrybrien wind farm, the Commission may refer the matter to the Court of Justice.
The decision on a second referral to the Court of Justice on the basis of Article 260 of the treaty must always be accompanied by a proposal for a penalty. Rulings by the court are binding on all EU member states. (1 euro=1.24 U.S.dollars)
