The Minister for the North Sea, Vincent Van Quickenborne, announced on Tuesday that he had lodged a complaint with the European Commission once morest the French project to build a wind farm off Dunkirk (north-west of France), near the Belgian border.
French wind turbine projects at sea have been worrying Belgium for several years: the inhabitants of coastal municipalities near the border fear visual disturbances, the port of Ostend is unhappy because the historic maritime routes to and from the United Kingdom are likely to be hindered.
At the beginning of last July, the Belgian government had already initiated legal proceedings before an administrative court in Lille. The file had also been raised with the European Commission, because Belgium was not heard during the determination of the location of the wind farm, whereas the European rules prescribe it.
The Commission then began mediation talks, but these came to nothing, according to Van Quickenborne. “During this process, we found that there was not enough will on the French side to take into account the rights of the inhabitants of the Belgian coast, the port of Ostend and other stakeholders.“.
Official complaint
Mr. Van Quickenborne (Open Vld) has officially launched a complaint procedure, he told the Belga agency on Tuesday.
The European Commission has three months to study the complaint and issue a reasoned opinion or not. After that, Belgium may possibly lodge a complaint with the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Mr Van Quickenborne stresses – as the Prime Minister at the time, Sophie Wilmès, had already done in December 2019 to President Emmanuel Macron – that Belgium remains open to dialogue with France. “But this step is necessary to safeguard our rights“said the Deputy Prime Minister of the Open Vld. “It’s a shame that France does not want to respond to the outstretched hand from the Belgian side“, he added.
The French wind farm project provides for a maximum of 46 wind turbines to be installed in 2027 more than 10 km off the port city of Dunkirk and more than 11.4 km off the seaside towns on either side of the border. with Belgium, over an overall area not exceeding 50 km2. For an installed capacity of 600 MW, according to its promoters, the Eoliennes en Mer consortium of Dunkirk (EDF Renewables, Innogy SE and Enbridge) and RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Electricité), the French network manager.
