Aug. 26, 2007
An April report from Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) and the CEE Bankwatch Network warned that EU funding plans regarding new member states for 2007-13 are not consistent with EU climate goals, and that Polish emissions could grow by up to 31 percent during the period. NGOs responded by calling for the European Commission (EC) and its commissioners to take swift action.
"The spending plans [...] feature remarkably little in the way of clean and efficient energy and transport," said FoEE project coordinator Martin Konecny. "Seven years and billions of euros [could be] lost to energy-intensive development."
The "EU cash in climate clash" report found that draft funding plans for the 10 CEE new member states (which joined in 2004) have allocated just one percent of EUR 177 billion of available Structural and Cohesion Fund money toward energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Also, according to the study, 53 percent of transport sector funds have been allocated for roads and motorways that will produce more traffic and greenhouse emissions, with just 30 percent to be spent on railways and 10 percent on public urban transport.
Hungary's and Poland's plans are worst from an energy-efficiency point of view, while those for Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania and Slovenia are poorest in terms of clean urban transport. Poland, tapped to receive nearly 20 percent of total funds from the EU budget for the eight-year period, plans a 31-percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2013 compared to 2003, according to strategy indicators.
