Added to the Legislation page, International Treaties:
* Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice regarding Environmental Matters (Århus, 1998) (Århus Convention)
/upload/eel-webroot/www/documents/cep43eaarhus.pdf
* Decision 2005/370/EC of 17 February 2005 concluding the Convention.
Several reservations are made by the EC, notably where it concerns access to justice and access to information. /upload/eel-webroot/www/documents/d_2005_370.pdf
Added to Legislation, Secondary Legislation, Climate Change and to Policy Areas, Climate Change, Legislation:
* Commission Decision 2005/381/EC establishing a questionnaire for reporting on the application of Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC
/upload/eel-webroot/www/documents/d_2005_381.pdf
Added to Policy areas, General, Policy Documents, Sustainable Development:
* Commission Communication Declaration on Guiding Principles for Sustainable Development, COM (2005) of 25 May 2005
A call for environmental and societal damage to be reflected in the cost of products and services has been toughened up in this document. The communication asks governments to “ensure that prices reflect the real cost to society… and polluters pay for the damage they cause to human health and the environment”. EU governments are to recommit to sustainable development, ahead of a forthcoming review of the EU sustainability strategy.
/upload/eel-webroot/www/documents/50526a.doc
Added to Policy Areas, General, Policy Documents:
* Environmental policy integration in Europe (Technical report No 2/2005)
Article 6 EC Treaty specifies that ‘environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition and implementation of the Community policies and activities (…) in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development’. This report discusses progress in practice in this area at the national and EU level, and the next steps necessary to ensure progress. It highlights environmental policy integration (EPI), a continual process to ensure that environmental issues are reflected in all policymaking. This generally demands changes in political, organisational and procedural activities, so that environmental issues are taken on board as early as possible and continuing during implementation. The product of EPI should be an overall improvement in policy and its implementation, in line with sustainable development needs. http://reports.eea.eu.int/technical_report_2005_2
Added to Case Law, ECJ, General and to Policy areas, General, Case Law:
* C-176/03 Commission v Council
AG Opinion 26-05-2005, not available in English yet
EC environmental law is normally based on Article 175 EC Treaty, under the “First Pillar” in other words. In directives and regulations the Community legislator (EP and Council) can adopt provisions with regard to criminal law measures, if this is necessary to achieve a Community objective. The Council decided to adopt Framework Decision 2003/80/JHI on the protection of the environment on the basis of the Articles 29, 31(e) and 34(2)(b) EU Treaty, i.e. the “Third Pillar” (police and justice cooperation). Advocate-General Colomer advices the ECJ to rule in favour of the Commission and declare that Framework Decision 2003/80/JHI on the protection of the environment through criminal law is unlawful and be annulled. The Community legislator’s powers under the Treaty establishing the European Community encompass certain criminal law measures, if these are necessary to achieve a Community objective, and if these powers exist then it is a First Pillar rather than a Third Pillar issue, according to AG Colomer.
http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&alldocs=alldocs&docj=docj&docop=docop&docor=docor&docjo=docjo&numaff=C-176%2F03&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100
Added to Case Law, ECJ, General and to Policy areas, General, Case Law:
* C-132/03 Codacons e.a.
ECJ 26-05-2005, nyr
EC legislation states that the accidental presence of GMOs does not have to be indicated on food labels if it remains below a threshold of 1% of the final product. Codacons, in opposition to the Italian health ministry, claims that this exception should not apply to baby food, citing the precautionary principle. The ECJ sees things differently, and focusses on the authorisation for GM food: “The precautionary principle, where relevant, is part of such a decision-making [authorisation] process”. It adds that nothing else in European Community GM and baby food legislation allows a special GM labelling regime for baby food. The judgement is the latest development in a series of disputes over the correct interpretation of a Council Regulation (EC) No 1139/98 of 26 May 1998 concerning the compulsory indication on the labelling of certain foodstuffs produced from genetically modified organisms of particulars other than those provided for in Directive 79/112/EEC, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 49/2000 of 10 January 2000.
http://www.curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=c-132/03
Added to Case Law, ECJ, Waste and to Policy areas, Waste, Case law:
* C-416/02 Commission v Spain
AG Opinion 12-05-2005, not yet available in English
The Advocate-General recommends that Spain be condemned for contravening the waste framework directive by allowing the operation of a large pig farm in Almeria, southern Spain and the urban wastewater directive by failing to properly treat wastewater from the agglomeration of Vera. Animal slurry from industrial farming should be considered waste even if then used as a fertiliser, according to the Advocate-General, rejecting, however, claims that Spain had also breached the EU groundwater, nitrates and environmental impact assessment directives.
http://www.curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Submit&docrequire=alldocs&numaff=c-416/02
Updated at the Dossiers page:
* Air pollution dossier
News on court cases in the Netherlands with regard to non-compliance with EC Directives.
Added to the Links page:
* Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC)
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/jrec/index_en.htm
The JREC is a coalition of Governments that are committed to achieving the commitments on renewable energy made at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) which took place at Johannesburg (South-Africa) in 2002. The JREC is co-chaired by the European Commission and the Government of Morocco.
Added to the Events page:
* 5 June 2005, World Environment Day
* 6-7 June 2005, Climate Change and Investment, London, UK
Event will host fund managers who will give hard facts about what they have achieved and what they are aiming for. More at http://www.environmental-finance.com/envfin/ccai.pdf
Added to the Job postings page:
Several vacancies at Greenpeace, notably EU Energy Policy Campaigner – Central and Eastern Europe / – Renewables and Internships. See details at Greenpeace website. http://eu.greenpeace.org/issues/vacan.html
************************************************************************************************
Editors-in-Chief:
Wybe Th. Douma (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Jens Hamer (Academy of European Law, Trier)
Editor:
Daria Ratsiborinskaya (Institute of European law, MGIMO-University, Moscow)
Technical realisation:
Marco van der Harst, Julien J.M. Simon
(T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
e-mail: mailto:eelnewsservices@asser.nl