Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) approved, on Thursday 18 March, the draft legislative initiative report by Antonius Manders (EPP, Netherlands) on company environmental liability.
Adopted with a comfortable majority (19 votes in favour, 6 against), this report aims to provide recommendations to the European Commission on the liability of companies for environmental damage so that it can integrate them into its future legislative proposals.
In particular, it calls for transforming the European Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) (2004/35) into a regulation.
“After almost 20 years, it’s time for a modernised ELD in the form of a regulation that aims at prevention and risk reduction. Just as important are measures to ensure that if damage does occur, the costs are not footed by the taxpayers”, said Mr Manders, mentioning the report’s proposal to create an “EU ELD Task Force at the Commission to help Member States harmonise enforcement across the internal market”.
It should be noted that all the compromise amendments - previously detailed in our columns (see EUROPE 12680/7) - were approved. One of them calls on the Commission to examine the possibility of enshrining ecocide in EU law and diplomacy. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)