As the UK takes over the Presidency of the European Union, the environment is high on the agenda. In our second special report looking at the issues of unemployment, the environment and crime, BBC Correspondent Mike Donkin travelled to Germany. Germany prides itself on its reputation for being the "greenest of European nations". But, according to Mike Donkin, this image has now been tarnished.

Power stations increase levels of carbon dioxide

On the Rhine plain a string of power stations belch out fumes from burning lignite, known as brown coal.

The coal is hewn from the giant open cast mines beside them, holes in the ground 200 feet deep and stretching for mile after mile.

Plans are already afoot to carve out another huge mine in order to supply enough brown coal for the next 50 years. Technology that has already been proven to be environmentally hazardous is still being used.

Gartzweiller in danger of being demolished

Local protest has been fierce. Gartzweiller is just one village the new mine would swallow. At a meeting in the community hall, one of the villagers insisted that German environmental policy was not "putting the people first."

"They've moved over 35 people in this district already, and now we are being threatened. They are chasing us out of our homes, and out of our villages and out of our lives. They're not putting people first, they're putting money first, because we as people are forgotten," said Gisa Irving.

Brown coal is a special threat, environmentalists say, because it is cheap, and takes three times as much as hard coal to produce the same power.

"At the moment it is very cheap to dig this coal and to use this coal, but if there were to be an energy tax covering the whole of Europe, the situation would change totally," said environmentalist Dirk Jansen.

"The price for electricity from lignite would double. So this would be the only way to help the people so they do not have to move away from their villages."

Tax is opposed by German industrialists

German industry rejects any sort of energy tax.The directors of one of the country's biggest chemical plants say profitability is the best guarantee of environmental protection.

"They can go together. Prospering industry is in a good position to invest into new plants, into new processes, that can contribute to a better environment," said Dr Jochen Rudolf.

The fragile balance in Germany between environmental aspirations and the push for prosperity is true of every European nation.

If nature is to get the upper hand, Europe's leaders must tip the scales hard.
 

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