Brussels, 23/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The decision to withdraw the proposed EU directives on soil protection and access to justice, which was published in the Official Journal on Wednesday 21 May (OJEU 2014/C 153/03), just as the European elections are taking place, is a matter of regret for the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). Describing them as two crucial pieces of environment policy on Thursday 22 May, the EEB said that the decision “sends a bad signal as to what Europe's priorities are” and called on the European Commission to present new proposals as soon as possible, to “show that Europe is serious about guaranteeing citizens' rights and protecting crucial natural resources”.
The proposed directive on access to justice dates back to 2003. “A new proposal is urgently needed, not only to create a more democratic Europe, not only to improve the implementation of environmental law, not only to create a more level playing field for business, but also in order to ensure that the EU is fully in compliance with its obligations under international law, namely the Aarhus Convention”, explains Jeremy Wates, the secretary general of the EEB.
As for the proposed framework directive on soil protection, which has been held at stalemate at the Council for nearly 10 years by a handful of member states (Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), the EEB believes that its withdrawal reveals a disturbing lack of vision and understanding of the importance of European soils, with a direct threat to food security on the one hand and, on the other, limiting “our ability to tackle climate change and prevent loss of biodiversity”.
Copa-Gogeca. Copa-Cogeca has welcomed the Commission's decision to withdraw the proposed so-called soils directive, as this organisation feels that it would lead to far more costs than benefits. “It was not necessarily going to improve soil protection in the EU. Its only consequence would have been more bureaucracy for farmers and agri-cooperatives”, stressed Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of Copa-Cogeca. There is no call for adding additional layers of red tape as “the EU already has effective legislation which contains strict soil protection measures, included in the new common agriculture policy as well as in the framework of the EU environmental legislation”, he added.
Readers may recall that the proposed framework directive, which forms a pillar of the thematic EU strategy for soil protection, aimed to establish a common strategy based on including soil-related concerns in other policies and preserving the functions of the soil, preventing threats by identifying areas requiring priority protection, creating action programmes and identifying and restoring contaminated sites (see EUROPE 11031). (AN)