Brussels, 04/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - If the environmental legislation of the EU is honourably quite ambitious and equipped with good quality legislative texts, the European Environmental Bureau (BEE), the biggest NGO federation for the defence of the environment, considers that the rub really lies in the implementation of the existing legislative arsenal.
The EEB demonstrates this in a new work, entitled “EU Environmental Policy Handbook for a better use of existing environmental law - a critical analysis of EU Environmental legislation”, which is published for the use of citizens' organisations, environmental NGOs and political decision-makers. The purpose of the publication is to help these groups better understand, and better draw on existing legislation in order to achieve the “raised level of environmental protection” which is written into the Treaties and pursued by the EU. This reference work, with a preface by Environment Commissioner, Stavros, offers an overview of thirty years history of EU environmental policy, and a critical analysis of some 66 texts and policies. From this critical analysis it emerges that, in spite of European legislation being quite ambitious and establishing common objectives, major environmental challenges persist since the technical progress achieved is nullified by the increasing use of resources, and resulting loss of biodiversity and chemical contamination. Adoption by Member States into their domestic law also remains worrying (1/3 of all infringement cases in the EU concern the non-respect of environmental legislation; in 2004, 336 new complaints were made to the Commission, and 294 cases were opened for the sole reason of badly applied texts.) Presenting this work to the press, Stefan Steuer, EEB policy director and editor, notably deplored that European environmental legislation had not led to “structural change at Member State level”. Member States did not know, for example, how to encourage mobility or transport for the long term in order to implement legislation on air quality.
Tempering the criticism, Stavros Dimas commented that despite the insufficient progress highlighted by the EEB on integrating environmental concerns into all EU policy sectors, he was confident in thematic environmental strategies to give rise to “a new generation of political decisions”, capable of remedying this. In an enlarged EU, the Commissioner's priorities are “the full application of legislation, the strategic planning of environment policy and a more structured dialogue with NGOs to better identify problems in the Member States”.
The EEB publication can be ordered from the following address: i-books@antenna.nl (Information: Gemma.parkes @eeb.org - Tel: +32 2 289 13 09)