Polluters should pay for the costs of pollution they cause - including clean-up costs - and not European taxpayers, as is too often the case in the EU, MEPs stressed, on Wednesday 1 September, in a debate between the Committees on Budgetary Control (CONT) and on the Environment (ENVI).
They all welcomed the recent Court of Auditors report on this subject, which was presented to them by Viorel Stefan, ECA member responsible for this audit (see EUROPE 12755/3). The report highlights shortcomings in the implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) during the 2014-2020 period - a principle that all political groups consider “essential”.
They called for an improvement of the EU regulatory framework, in particular with regard to soil protection, diffuse pollution from agriculture, industrial emissions and environmental liability.
According to Trajan Băsescu (EPP, Romania), “the whole regulatory system is insufficient: we need stronger legislation to ensure the causal link between pollution and the consequences for human health, preferring the obligation for companies to have environmental insurance to sanctions and applying the ‘Industrial Emissions’ Directive to all installations”.
Anna Zalewska (ECR, Poland) criticised the ‘Fit for 55’ climate package in which “it is always the taxpayer who pays, with new taxes, new obligations, new bans”.
“Soil must be protected. We have already asked for a legislative proposal”, said César Luena (Spain S&D) and Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Greens/EFA, Germany). “Will you hear our call?”, Martin Hojsík ((Renew Europe, Slovakia) asked the European Commission.
The institution’s representative, Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, advocated for caution, recalling the difficulties encountered with a proposed directive twenty years ago.
On agriculture, he stressed that the polluter pays principle already applies through conditionalities, which are reinforced in the new CAP.
He assured MEPs that the Environmental Liability Directive will be reviewed in 2023, with a necessary evolution of financial instruments and guarantees. In addition, a proposal for a new framework for industrial emissions will be made in 2022 “to embrace uncovered sectors, support decarbonisation efforts, encourage new technologies, improve transparency”.
But consistent implementation and compliance with the PPP is not only a question of the regulatory framework. “We can improve the transposition of this principle into law, be stricter in the use of funds for the decontamination of industrial sites, but also ensure compliance with the rules in force, which are adequate”, he said.
He cited the Water Framework Directive or the ‘Waste’ legislation, which includes charges to discourage waste production, encourages recycling and contains provisions on producer responsibility. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)