Ireland faces fines of €21,600 per day for non-compliance with the environmental regulations regarding peat extraction from sensitive boglands.
The European Commission has decided to refer Ireland to the European Court of Justice for the second time in order to enforce a previous judgement of the Court handed down in September 1999.
If the court rules against Ireland, then European Commission is calling for fines.
These fines would apply from the day of the second judgement of the Court.
Hosting rare plants and animals, those Irish peatlands that are of conservation importance form a valuable component of global biodiversity, the European Commission said in a statement today.
"The European Court of Justice ruled on this case over three years ago and it is essential that Ireland now comes into line with the legal provisions on environmental impact assessment," the Environment Commissioner, Ms Margot Wallström said.
"The Irish Government have recently informed me of their intention to comply fully with the Directive.
Following a period of public consultation that is now being launched in Ireland on the designation of sensitive peatlands under national legislation, I am hopeful that Ireland will soon comply with the Directive and that we will be able to close this long-running case."
In September 1999, the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland had not correctly transposed certain provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive
The Court found that Ireland's rules did not take enough account of the need to assess projects that are likely to affect environmentally sensitive areas.
Ireland has since adopted new implementing legislation.
However, after examining it, the Commission concluded that, for approximately 45,000 hectares of sensitive peatlands, further steps are still required. In particular, at present, Irish legislation does not ensure that all environmentally significant peat extraction projects below 10 hectares are subject to assesment.
In European and global terms, Irish peatlands of conservation importance represent valuable habitats, hosting rare plant and animal species(1).
Out of the 45,000 hectares of sensitive peatlands in question, about 15,000 consist of raised bogs and 30,000 consist of blanket bogs.
The raised bogs are especially at risk, since it is attractive to mine them for horticultural peat, i.e. the sort of peat found in garden centres.
However, given that Court judgements ought to be implemented as soon as possible, that the judgement in this case dates back to 1999, and that required measures are still not fully established, the Commission has decided that it is necessary to refer Ireland back to the Court.