House of Commons - Environmental Audit

Select Committee on Environmental Audit Minutes of Evidence

Memorandum submitted by the Institute for European Environmental Policy

The Committee recognises that "a great number of environmental policies flow from the agreement at EU level" and "is interested in:

(1) considering the relationship between EU and domestic policy;

(2) the Government's input to EU policy making; and

(3) its implementation of the resulting policies". It is also "interested in:

(4) comparing the UK Government's performance with that of other Member States . . . " (letter from Specialist Assistant, 9 July 1998).

There are four important and difficult issues on some of which there is authoritative literature, but some of which can only be discussed subjectively.

1. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EU AND DOMESTIC POLICY

The Treaty of Rome expressly provides for a "Community Policy on the Environment" (Article 130r, s, t) to be embodied in items of legislation which then have to be implemented by the Member States. Article 130r (2) goes on to require that "Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of other Community policies". In this respect, EU policy mirrors that in most countries where it is composed of two elements:

(a) what is traditionally the field of environmental Ministries, e.g., air and water pollution; and

(b) policies of other Ministries, possibly under pressure of the environment Ministry, to advance the cause of environmental protection so as to contribute to sustainable development.

In the EU, as in all countries, (b) is more problematic than (a).

EU policy is largely embodied in items of legislation and mechanisms for providing money and, unlike national policies, is less reliant on administrative action for the simple reason that the EU has few agents of its own able to execute policy. The EU, while not a federal state, is similar to a federal state in that if the higher level of government (the EU institutions) wishes to bind the lower level (the Member States) to achieve certain ends, it can only do so by means of legislation.

EU law takes precedence over national law. In the making of EU law, the Member States have influence but not complete control since there are few areas where voting is by unanimity enabling any one Member State to veto the others (an exception being fiscal matters, with the result that there is no carbon tax agreed at EU level).

When he was Secretary of State, John Gummer said that 80 per cent. of British environmental policy came from the EU. While the precise figure of 80 cannot easily be defended, Mr Gummer made the fair point that the EU dominates UK environmental policy. He was presumably referring to "pure" environmental policy rather than other policies to affect the environment.

2. THE GOVERNMENT'S INPUT TO EU POLICY MAKING

This question should be approached item by item and policy area by policy area since the quality and effectiveness of the UK's input is not uniform. It also changes over time. Answers will differ if one is considering "pure" environmental policy or other policies which have an impact on the environment (agriculture, transport, etc.).

Sometimes the UK plays a leading role in promoting EU legislation (e.g., the IPPC Directive), sometimes it is a total opponent (e.g., the carbon tax) and sometimes a partial opponent (e.g., the ban on co-disposal in the proposed landfill Directive). The UK has the reputation for approaching negotiations in a professional manner with officials being well informed and wanting to make EU legislation workable. Sometimes constructive UK criticism has been mistaken for purely negative criticism.

One feature that distinguishes the UK input is that it is the result of inter-departmental discussions rather than being purely a departmental view. This often means that the UK input on an environmental matter may be more cautious than that of other governments. Environmental input into other policy fields (agriculture, external trade, etc.) is less well developed because DETR officials have less experience in these fields. This is an area which will require more attention in the future, and the conclusions of the Cardiff Summit could provide the spur.

3. IMPLEMENTATION OF RESULTING POLICIES

In the last few years there has been widespread concern that EU legislation is not properly implemented. The House of Lords published a Report on the subject last year, and there has been a Communication from the Commission, and Resolutions of the Parliament and Council within the last two years.

About 500 items of EU environmental legislation have been adopted over the years which can be divided into about 90 topic heads (many of the 500 are minor amendments). How each of these has been implemented is discussed in the IEEP Manual of Environmental Policy: the EC and Britain (Cartermill Publishing, loose-leaf). Each will have its own problems and history, and generalisations are not very helpful. There is a lack of published comparative studies on the performance of different Member States and this is a matter that the European Environment Agency and the Commission should together consider. The "standardised reporting" Directive 91/692 is not being effective and needs to be reviewed.

4. COMPARING UK GOVERNMENT'S PERFORMANCE WITH THAT OF OTHER MEMBER STATES