EUROPEAN citizens should pay for the water they use in exactly the same fashion as petrol, heat and energy, European environment commissioner Stavros Dimas has said.

THE Irish Government is being sued by the European Commission because it has failed to introduce laws to ensure the polluter and not the taxpayer pays to clean up damage to the environment.

THE EU will have to review its plan to have 10% of its transport fuel from biofuels by 2020 after warnings of huge social and environmental side effects.

The European Commission is reportedly expected to begin legal action against the Government today over the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara.

IRELAND is facing multi-million euro fines from the European Union from this autumn for a raft of environmental failures such as contaminated water.

PLANNING rules that restrict building permission to those who speak Irish, are from the locality or work on the land, are to be challenged by the European Commission.

AIR pollution is taking up to four months off the life of Irish citizens while a range of pollution from air to noise is responsible for up to 10% of illness, according to a EU report.

THE COST of a new car could increase by €5,000, warn car manufacturers, which have been given a six-year deadline to produce cleaner vehicles that emit less carbon dioxide.

WITH temperatures hitting a sizzling 30º Celsius during the recent heat wave, we were given a taste of what summers will be like in Ireland as the 21st century progresses.

THE EU Commissioner for the Environment is investigating why this country has failed to remove all waste from, and fill in, illegal lagoons, despite being ordered to do so 13 months ago by the European Court.

European Union politicians are preparing for a showdown over a bill overhauling the EU’s chemicals policy, one of the most far-reaching and intensely lobbied pieces of legislation in recent years.

The European Union today launched a plan to make all of the EU’s marine waters “environmentally healthy” by 2021.

THE European Commission is to press ahead with a range of environmental strategies including a €12 billion clear air programme that is estimated to save up to 30,000 premature deaths a year.