Time for the EU to step up environmental enforcement
Posted, November 20, 2008 @ 17:00
MEPs call for environmental inspection teams
Strasbourg, 20th November 2008 -- The European Parliament has today passed a resolution calling on the European Commission to take a sterner approach to governments failing to abide by their commitments to enforce environmental law.
Conservative MEP Caroline Jackson, who co-authored the resolution on environmental inspection, said there are huge disparities between those national governments - such as the UK - that generally abide by European legislation, and those that implement patchily or fail to enforce environmental law.
Dr Jackson is calling for the creation of an environmental inspection force that will enable the European Commission to step up its efforts against those governments that are distorting competition in the single market and damaging the environment by failing to live up to commitments made in the Council of Ministers.
Dr Jackson said:
"There is such a wide disparity between national environmental inspection systems across the EU that important legislation is not being implemented or enforced.
"It is all well and good governments signing up to strict environmental standards, but failure to implement them distorts competition across the single market and allows damage to the environment. It is very important that the European Parliament has endorsed my call to transform the European Network for the Implementation, and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) into a possible environmental inspection force which will have legal right of entry into Member States.
"The European Commission has overall responsibility for ensuring EU environmental legislation is adequately transposed into national law and enforced. The tools the Commission has at present are far too weak, and countries are being allowed to flout their commitments with limited consequences. It is time we gave the European Commission the tools it needs to ensure all EU governments are delivering their environmental undertakings."