The State should "back down" from wrangling with the appropriate assessment process it has said it will complete in a bid to secure another nitrates derogation.
It should instead focus on the politics of the approval process, Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen told Taoiseach Micheál Martin, TDs and senators on Wednesday at their parliamentary party meeting.
Cowen said he believed the “door was open to hearing a political argument, a political case” in Brussels, but if the process of going about securing another derogation is treated as a “legal exercise”, the argument will be one that “we’ll lose”.
The MEP’s comments come as he has indicated sources in Brussels suggest that an agreement in principle - with onerous conditions attached - could be announced as early as Friday when Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall is to visit Ireland.
He rounded on the Department of Agriculture for conceding to the European Commission’s demands for a full appropriate assessment of the derogation, as he warned that accepting a derogation on the promise of carrying out the process would be “flawed, short-sighted approach”.
“While I fully support the Government’s efforts to retain the derogation, I am deeply concerned that the Department’s proposed approach, which accepts this demand from the Commission, risks doing long-term damage to Irish agriculture and to the State’s ability to function administratively,” he said.
The appropriate assessment move would set a “dangerous legal precedent” that could invite judicial reviews on farming policies and other non-agricultural development works which would have a “paralysing” impact on decision-making in rural Ireland, Cowen stated.
“Rather than securing a pragmatic, proportionate solution that reflects Ireland’s strong environmental record, we appear to be accepting a compliance model that, I believe, no other member state would tolerate.”
Proposed solution
The solution put forward by Cowen to attempt to secure another derogation without miring the State in legal uncertainty was to seek a three-to-four extension that would allow water quality measures in place to show an impact on testing results.
“The evidence of progress is there. It is now essential that Ireland advances a political argument in Brussels - one that seeks a three to four-year extension to allow ongoing measures to mature and for improvements to be fully reflected in the scientific data.”
Read more
Almost 2,000 farmers call for crucial derogation to be retained
Farmer views: 'crucial to retain the derogation'
December D-day for derogation
The State should "back down" from wrangling with the appropriate assessment process it has said it will complete in a bid to secure another nitrates derogation.
It should instead focus on the politics of the approval process, Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen told Taoiseach Micheál Martin, TDs and senators on Wednesday at their parliamentary party meeting.
Cowen said he believed the “door was open to hearing a political argument, a political case” in Brussels, but if the process of going about securing another derogation is treated as a “legal exercise”, the argument will be one that “we’ll lose”.
The MEP’s comments come as he has indicated sources in Brussels suggest that an agreement in principle - with onerous conditions attached - could be announced as early as Friday when Commissioner for the Environment Jessika Roswall is to visit Ireland.
He rounded on the Department of Agriculture for conceding to the European Commission’s demands for a full appropriate assessment of the derogation, as he warned that accepting a derogation on the promise of carrying out the process would be “flawed, short-sighted approach”.
“While I fully support the Government’s efforts to retain the derogation, I am deeply concerned that the Department’s proposed approach, which accepts this demand from the Commission, risks doing long-term damage to Irish agriculture and to the State’s ability to function administratively,” he said.
The appropriate assessment move would set a “dangerous legal precedent” that could invite judicial reviews on farming policies and other non-agricultural development works which would have a “paralysing” impact on decision-making in rural Ireland, Cowen stated.
“Rather than securing a pragmatic, proportionate solution that reflects Ireland’s strong environmental record, we appear to be accepting a compliance model that, I believe, no other member state would tolerate.”
Proposed solution
The solution put forward by Cowen to attempt to secure another derogation without miring the State in legal uncertainty was to seek a three-to-four extension that would allow water quality measures in place to show an impact on testing results.
“The evidence of progress is there. It is now essential that Ireland advances a political argument in Brussels - one that seeks a three to four-year extension to allow ongoing measures to mature and for improvements to be fully reflected in the scientific data.”
Read more
Almost 2,000 farmers call for crucial derogation to be retained
Farmer views: 'crucial to retain the derogation'
December D-day for derogation
SHARING OPTIONS