Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market
In the chair: Giuseppe GARGANI (EPP-ED, I)
Procedure: Co-decision, first reading
Plenary vote: May, Strasbourg
Press enquiries:
Nikolaos Tziorkas - tel. (32-2) 28 42341
e-mail: lega-press@europarl.eu.int
Accidents like Seveso in 1976, Baia Mare in 2000 and Toulouse in 2002, as well as the Erika and Prestige tanker disasters, not only sometimes cost human lives but also cause serious and lasting environmental damage. A system of environmental protection to prevent such accidents or at least deal effectively with their consequences is thus needed.
The Commission is therefore proposing a directive laying down common EU rules on liability for preventing and remedying damage to the environment. In a first-reading report by Toine MANDERS (ELDR, NL), adopted on Tuesday by 18 votes to 11, Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee adopted a large number of amendments to the proposal.
The Commission's draft, based on ”the polluter pays” principle, would make Member States responsible for ensuring that environmental damage is either prevented, by taking appropriate measures in cases of imminent threats, or effectively remedied by restoring the previous situation if the damage has already been done. The costs of the prevention and/or the remedy would ultimately be borne by the "operator" of the relevant activity. The proposal also deals with the handling of cross-border cases and with EU relations with special international conventions on sea pollution by oil and on environmental damage from nuclear activities.
The amendments adopted - in some cases compromise amendments drafted by the rapporteur and supported by his own and the EPP-ED group - were mostly approved by close votes as the PES, Green and EUL/NGL groups opposed them for not protecting the environment sufficiently. A number of rejected amendments are thus likely to be retabled in plenary.
Overall, the amendments approved seek to create a stricter legislative framework while also striking a better balance between the conflicting interests of industry and environmental actors.
One amendment broadens the definitions of "European biodiversity" and "biodiversity damage". Another seeks to extend the scope of the directive after a five-year transitional period to a large number of areas currently not included, for example nuclear and sea pollution, which are currently subject to specific international conventions, provided that these conventions have not been ratified by the end of the five-year period by the EC and/or the Member States. MEPs also want to make procedures speedier and more effective by requiring those responsible for environmentally harmful actions to take appropriate preventive or restorative measures without waiting for the authorities to request that they do so.
A further amendment would reduce the number of exemptions enabling operators to avoid bearing the costs for any environmental damage they have caused. MEPs also voted to oblige, rather than simply "encourage", Member States to promote financial security systems to cover cases where an operator cannot be held responsible for environmental damage.
