14 Implementing Community environmental
law
| (30217)
16222/08
+ ADDS 1-3
COM(08) 773
| Commission Communication on implementing European Community environmental law
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| Legal base | — |
| Documents originated | 18 November 2008
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| Deposited in Parliament | 28 November 2008
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| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 8 January 2009
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
14.1 In September 2007, the Commission produced a Communication[73]
"A Europe of Results — Applying EU Law", which
set out ways in which compliance with Community law might be improved
by various means. The purpose of the current Communication is
to assess how that approach has been applied to Community environmental
law.
The current document
14.2 The Commission begins by identifying the general challenges.
It observes that the environmental acquis is broad and
ambitious, covering such issues as climate change, air quality,
waste management, the protection of water resources and biodiversity,
controls on chemicals, and environmental impact assessment and
that it needs to be applied to a wide range of natural conditions,
under very varied national and regional administrations, and in
situations which often have a cross-border dimension. In addition,
it points to the very high level of public interest, the challenges
presented by the recent enlargement, and factors such as insufficient
attention being paid to deadlines and completeness during national
implementation, shortcomings in knowledge and awareness in national
and regional administrations, shortcomings in administrative capacities,
poor enforcement, and under-investment in the necessary infrastructure
for abating pollution.
14.3 It sees the more specific challenges as arising
on waste (with illegal land-filling, inadequate networks of regulated
waste facilities, illegal waste shipments, and poor public awareness
of the prevention, reuse and recycling of waste); water (a need
in certain Member States to invest more in collecting and treating
urban waste water, requiring long-term planning and financial
commitment), nature (filling gaps in the network of European nature
sites, and better management), industrial installations (where
a significant number still have outstanding Community permit and
related requirements), environmental impact assessments (where
there is a need to have orderly developments which take account
of legitimate environmental concerns), air quality (where action
is needed to address the lack of compliance in many European cities),
and climate change (where there is a need to ensure that all Member
States provide the information needed to follow up the Kyoto Protocol
properly).
14.4 The Communication then looks at ways of improving
implementation of environmental law, which it says requires both
corrective and preventive action, coupled with a strategic approach.
More specifically, this involves:
Prevention of breaches
The Commission reiterates the importance of preventive
action which commences with the design and drafting of legislation,
involves a range of activities once it is adopted, and includes
review and revision, and it adds that approaches such as thematic
strategies, consultation and impact assessments help to ensure
that legislation is coherent, efficient and effective. Once legislation
is in place, it suggests that implementation can be achieved through
effective information gathering to check how well policies are
working; scoreboards enabling a comparison to be made of the relative
performance of Member States; appropriate use of Community funds,
including pre-Accession support for enlargement countries; the
issuing of Commission guidance documents to avoid disputes over
interpretation; and a structured dialogue with national authorities
and others. The Commission says that it also intends to help fund
a programme of judicial training in environmental law, as a reflection
of the key role which national courts play both in individual
cases and in the interpretation of Community case law; and, following
the adoption of major new environmental directives, it will establish
permanent networks involving Commission officials and Member States
contact points.
Problem solving in response to specific public
concerns
The Commission observes that public acceptance of
Community environmental law requires accurate information in all
the official languages, the availability of responsible bodies
to fulfil its requirements, and recourse to dispute mechanisms.
It adds that, although the first emphasis must be on satisfactory
responses at a national level, the Commission itself is often
asked to investigate complaints and provide information. It says
that it has established a pilot problem-solving mechanism with
15 Member States — including the UK
— to test how it can
respond better to public inquiries, and that it is placing environment
officials on a trial basis in its representative offices in four
Member States to raise awareness, identify problems and solutions,
and liaise with national authorities.
Treatment of important offences
The Commission says that the judgements of the European
Court of Justice (ECJ) have played an important part in improving
the application of Community environmental law, and adds that
infringement procedures should be used effectively to tackle the
most important problems. It identifies three categories of infringement
which it says should be dealt with more immediately and more intensively,
namely the non-communication of implementing measures for directives,
failure to comply with an ECJ judgement within a specified period,
and breaches (including non-conformity cases) which raise issues
of principle (for example in undermining a measure's overall effectiveness)
or which have a particularly far-reaching adverse effect on the
public (notably those which expose them to direct harm, especially
if this is of an irreversible nature).
Dialogue with the European Parliament
The Commission notes the European Parliament's clear
interest in effective implementation as a co-legislator, and that
the environment accounts for 10% of all parliamentary questions
it puts to the Commission, with the Environment Committee also
taking a strong interest. It observes that this can facilitate
dialogue on strategic aspects of implementation.
Communication with the public and interested parties
The Commission says that transparency and communication
are especially important in this field, and that it will make
available information and key statistics, showing the progress
being made, available through Annual Reports, regularly updated
scoreboards in high profile areas, and awareness raising activities
(in which environmental non-governmental organisations have a
key role to play). It will also pursue dialogue with other interested
parties in order to take into account as wide a range of views
as possible.
The Government's view
14.5 In her Explanatory Memorandum of 8 January
2009, the Minister for Sustainable Development, Climate Change
Adaptation and Air Quality at the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt) says that the UK has generally
performed well in transposing Community legislation, and therefore
encourages the Commission to bring forward proposals
to facilitate as level a playing field as possible between Member
States, whilst acknowledgement that the adoption of better regulation
techniques can help the UK itself to manage its caseload and minimise
the risk of infractions. At the same time, he says that the UK
considers that the Commission's impact assessments should pay
particular attention to implementation and enforcement, with a
risk-based approach to the selection of enforcement cases being
considered, based on the degree of actual or potential harm. He
also suggests that legislation should be sufficiently flexible
to take account of circumstances in individual Member States.
The Minister adds that the UK favours a cooperative approach,
and that, in addition to taking part in the Commission's pilot
project scheme for problem-solving, his department hosts a yearly
meeting with the Infringement Unit, at which infractions are discussed.
Conclusion
14.6 This Communication
provides a useful resumé
of the way in which Community
law is being applied in an important area of policy, and, for
that reason, we are drawing it to the attention of the House.
However, we do not believe it raises any particular issues which
require further consideration, and we are therefore clearing it.
73 COM(07) 502. Back
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