EU judges to rule on Sellafield complaint

EUROPEAN judges are due to rule today on the legality of the Government’s decision to complain to the UN about the Sellafield nuclear plant.

The Government launched a UN action in 2001 over marine pollution from the site, on Britain’s west coast.

A UN Tribunal responded with recommendations for helping solve the long-running and bitter Anglo-Irish dispute over the environmental impact of the Sellafield site.

But the European Commission went to court accusing Ireland of breaching rules obliging member states to keep disputes involving EU law within EU jurisdiction.

An Advocate-General at the European Court of Justice has already backed the commission’s case that the environmental conflict over Sellafield should be tackled within the EU.

Now the final verdict rests with the full court, which follows the Advocate-General’s legal “opinion” in about 80% of cases.

Lawyers for the Government argued that Dublin was right to turn to the UN, because the case against the British concerned the alleged flouting by the Sellafield plant’s operators of marine environmental protection obligations under the UN Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

The tribunal itself concluded that the dispute was solely based on UN requirements, even recommending “provisional measures” to resolve the problem.

The commission said environmental protection was an area of joint EU legal responsibility and that Ireland should not have asked an UN body to interpret EU laws.

The move raised as many questions about clashing international jurisdictions as it did about the Sellafield dispute itself.