Brussels, 09/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Finally, in Strasbourg on Wednesday 9 October, the European Parliament has said yes to revision of the 1985 directive on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (85/337/EEC, known as the EIA directive) to rationalise procedures and increase public involvement. It also called for exploration and hydraulic fracturing extraction activities for non-conventional hydrocarbons to be subject to compulsory environmental impact studies under the terms of the new revised directive. This was not a measure envisaged by the European Commission (see EUROPE 10938).
The plenary session voted for this measure on “fracking” by a narrow majority (339 votes to 293), and it was by 332 votes to 311, with 14 abstentions, that it granted a mandate to rapporteur Andrea Zanoni (ALDE, Italy) to negotiate a first-reading agreement with the Council on a key text which will establish the principle of informed decision-making for projects that have a significant impact on the environment and which will harmonise with the EU's new priorities on soil protection, effective use of resources and protection of biodiversity.
“Hydraulic fracturing raises concerns. We lay down clear criteria to avoid conflicts of interest and involve the public”, said Zanoni. Following the vote, he told EUROPE that he was “very happy to have been granted a mandate to begin negotiations with the Council” and to have had the support of Parliament in demanding compulsory schist gas impact assessments, “not only in the extraction phase, but especially in the exploration phase if fracking is used”. He said that the vote would “provide the Commission with support for the specific legislative proposal it is drafting on schist gas and a mandate for this proposal also to cover exploration”. He admits to being a little disappointed, however, that, in the text adopted, public involvement does not cover the screening and scoping stages of projects.
The texted adopted includes measures which seek to prevent conflicts of interest between developers and people carrying out studies. Through their amendments, MEPs seek to ensure that experts have the necessary qualifications, experience and technical skills and that they are able to work in a scientifically objective way, independently of the developer and the public authorities themselves. MEPs also voted for measures to ensure that the public is informed and consulted. They rejected, however, the idea of imposing an appropriate corrective measure in cases where follow-up monitoring of projects that have considerable harmful effects on the environment demonstrates that the mitigation and compensation measures provided for are inadequate. (AN/transl.fl)