Mr. Philip Nugent:

Let me take the last question first. It will be dealt with during our EU Presidency. We do not have a fixed number of working party meetings but we have listed it in the draft agendas for the two Councils in March and June. Our level of ambition will be coloured by the discussions at the working party and the positions of member states.

This takes me back to the first question on the feedback we have received so far. It is a proposal that is giving rise to significant concerns in other member states. I would draw a distinction between some of the newer member states who joined post-2000 and the older ones. Some of the newer member states seem to have brought their environmental law into line with existing EU legislation. Therefore some of the newer member states seem to have a dedicated stand-alone EIA consent process, whereas the older member states, including ourselves, have a requirement for EIA arising under a number of different legislative codes, for example, foreshore and arterial drainage planning. It seems to be giving rise to greater complexity in member states that do not have dedicated stand-alone EIA systems.

The feedback so far has been mixed. I would say that two thirds have quite significant concerns. All member states have scrutiny reservations but that is a standard with any draft proposal at this early stage.

As regards the alignment between IPPC and planning, we would not be particularly concerned that there are too many difficulties there. That is because we have gone a long way to ensure that they are very closely aligned anyway. One issue that would give us some concern in terms of that alignment, though, is the designation of a competent authority or a facilitating authority.

Other consent systems may also interact with IPPC. It may not be so straightforward but from a planning and IPPC point of view, we are satisfied it will not give rise to additional complexity. The Commission has given us an assurance on this but we are still consulting other Departments responsible for other consent systems to see how it might square for them