The members of the European Parliament’s environment committee expect much of the country-by-country Environmental Implementation Review (EIR), an instrument to improve performance in implementing EU environmental law, the first edition of which was presented by the Commission on 6 February to help member states identify and address the causes of implementation gaps (see EUROPE 11719).
They made their expectations clear in Brussels on Thursday 31 August in adopting the terms of an oral question to the Council and the Commission, requesting an oral response from the two institutions at a plenary session debate.
The text underlines the value of the EIR in offering an overview of how the member states are performing. It emphasises the importance of making implementation of environmental legislation a political priority and of creating a structured dialogue with the member states.
Consequently, MEPs want to know how the Commission intends to ensure swift and effective implementation of the recommendations for action contained in the EIR to address the gaps identified.
They ask if the Commission intends to produce a scoreboard of how countries perform and whether it intends to identify best practice so as to set reference criteria for assessing progress.
MEPs want to be informed of the Commission’s action plan to ensure and improve transparency and the involvement of a broad range of parties in the structured dialogues with the member states and, in the event of failure to comply with a requirement, the length of time countries will be allowed to do what is necessary to address the matter before infringement proceedings are opened. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)