Pia Bucella

Conference on Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Legislation
23-25 September 2009, Sibiu, Romania

New developments in European environmental policy – Pia Bucella

• On behalf of the European Commission I would like to welcome all participants and thank Romania for co-organising this conference.

• I also want to express my gratitude to the members of the IMPEL network for their hard work in preparing this conference.

• In this opening intervention I would like to outline the Commission's views on new developments in EU environmental policy and focus in particular on our work on implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation.

• Among the issues that will affect policy over the coming five years, the potential for a new context stemming from an agreement at the December 2009 Copenhagen climate conference features strongly, with climate increasingly being integrated into other sectoral policies. Eventual ratification of the Lisbon treaty (and the further development of a common external policy) will be relevant too.

• Water policy, being one of the cornerstones of environment policy, requires constant attention. It is fundamentally linked to climate regulation and biodiversity; drinking water is becoming (seasonally) scarce in certain parts of the EU; and over the coming years, important investment in infrastructure will be necessary (e.g. on Urban Waste Water treatment). The EU is already committed to the target of achieving good ecological status of EU waters by 2015.

• Biodiversity and nature protection will attract increased attention. Biodiversity, by its very nature, is a very wide-ranging policy issue. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity have been analysed and a full report is expected by the end of 2009 which will inform future policy. Another report will come out later this year which for the first time ever will be looking into the state of some 1000 species and habitats. It will be an important signal for future EU nature policy. There will be close links with the outcomes of negotiations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and there will be both EU and global targets in 2010, paving the way towards action to support prevention of biodiversity loss.

• Where resource efficiency is concerned, renewable energy will play a larger part in the overall energy mix, but beyond energy, policies to encourage new patterns of production, distribution and consumption will emerge, focusing also on better prevention and management of waste, through both demand-side management and a policy debate that brings on board a wider range of players in the supply / demand chain.

• Levels of air quality that do not damage human health have not yet been reached across the EU and with potential breaches of air quality targets on the horizon, further action will be needed to ensure cleaner air in the future.

• Protection and conservation of soil will become more important: we rely on soil as part of the natural ecosystem, but Europe's soils are losing their capacity to work for us, with decline in organic matter, soil compaction, contamination and erosion among the negative effects that will need to be better addressed.

• Implementation and legal enforcement will be higher on the Commission's agenda over the next five years reflecting the focus on the Commission's role as the only independent authority to ensure equal treatment of Member States in the enforcement of treaty obligations and legislation. With the development of the acquis, the emphasis is progressively shifting from law-making to implementation. It is therefore important to consider options to improve the effectiveness of our implementation and legal enforcement action.

• The Commission is the guardian of the Treaty (Article 211). It has been granted specific powers to fulfil this task with the possibility to open infringement procedures and to eventually bring a case against a Member State before the European Court of Justice (Article 226 EC and 228 EC).

• The possibilities of legal action have been continuously developed in successive Treaties. The Lisbon Treaty will increase the capacity of action of the Commission in cases such as late transposition of Directives or slow execution of Court rulings.

• In this general context, the Commission adopted in September 2007 a key general Communication on implementation of EC law. The Commission stressed the need to improve implementation and, highlighted the need for partnership with Member States, while signalizing the development of new internal working methods. In DG ENV, we believed that the issue deserved specific attention and the Commission adopted a second Communication on implementation of EC environmental law in November 2008.

• One of the main messages of this Communication is that we have to take measures to prevent breaches of environmental legislation throughout all its stages from conception and design to implementation.

• As part of our Better Regulation Strategy we draw attention to designing legislation that is as "implementable" as possible.

• After a directive is adopted, we will work more closely with Member States to ensure smooth adoption of national legislation. We have already introduced mechanisms to contribute to these objectives (such as transposition action plans, guidance documents, package meetings…).

• As regards the many individual complaints that the Commission receives from citizens, the accent is on working closely with Member States to ensure that we are all responsive to well-founded concerns.

• The Communication further sets out how the Commission can make the most efficient use of its enforcement powers, by developing a strategic approach and defining priority actions.

• Finally, the Commission recognises that this subject has a dynamic character and that it is important to have a dialogue with all the key stakeholders.

• Implementation of EC environmental law demands cooperation between Member States and the Commission, but also between Member States themselves. This is why 'Working Together –for a better environment' was chosen as the theme of this conference.

• In this context IMPEL plays a very important role. The network has gone through major changes and I am happy that the transition was successful, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Commission and IMPEL earlier this month as very positive signal and cornerstone on the way to future cooperation. The Commission recognises the valuable contribution of IMPEL towards improving implementation of environmental legislation and continues its support of and cooperation with IMPEL.

• Environmental inspectors enforce environmental legislation on the ground and are therefore key actors in the implementation process. The Recommendation on minimum criteria for environmental inspections sets out a Community wide framework for carrying out environmental inspections. The Commission is currently reviewing this Recommendation. As announced in our Communication of October 2007 we intend to propose a revision of the Recommendation to strengthen and clarify it and to complement it where necessary with legally binding provisions on inspections in existing environmental legislation, such as for instance the proposed IPPC Recast.

• The Commission is launching a study assessing the impacts of the different options for the review and plans to make its final proposals next year.

• Other actors that play an important role in applying environmental legislation are the national judges. The Commission has launched a programme for a strengthened cooperation with and between national judges. Under the programme workshops on key pieces of environmental legislation will be held in all Member States.

• In this context, the Commission will also pay close attention to the application by Member States of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Justice in Environmental matters.

• Better implementation of environmental legislation involves everybody and I am happy to see so many local, regional and national authorities from so many countries as well as judges, NGOs and industry taking part in this conference.

• I hope we will have fruitful discussions and exchanges during this conference.