Added to Case Law, ECJ
C-289/08, Commission v. Luxembourg and C-342/08, Commission v. Belgium
ECJ 12-03-2009
On 12 March 2009 the European Court of Justice condemned Luxembourg and Belgium for failing to draw up external emergency plans for areas surrounding industrial installations that store or handle large quantities of dangerous substances under Article 9 of Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (currently available only in French).
Sector: Chemicals
C-402/08, Commission v. Slovenia and C-331/08, Commission v. Luxembourg
ECJ 12-03-2009 and ECJ 24-03-2009
In these cases the European Court of Justice condemned Slovenia and Luxembourg for failing to adopt within the period prescribed the provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage (currently available only in French).
Sector: General
Added to Legal texts, Transport
*Car CO2 EU Regulation adopted
On 25 March 2009, the Council of ministers adopted the final text of an EU regulation ting emission performance standards for new passenger cars as part of the Community’s integrated approach to reduce CO2 emissions from light-duly vehicles. The car CO2 Regulation s a new average EU emission limit of 130 grams CO2 per kilometre.
Added to Legal texts, Chemicals
*EU ban of non-efficient light bulbs
On 18 March 2009 the Commission adopted two ecodesign regulations to progressively remove from the market non-efficient light bulbs. The two regulations lay down energy efficiency requirements which will save close to 80 TWh by 2020 and will lead to a reduction of about 32 million tons of CO2 emission per year. Regulation (EC) No 244/2009 s ecodesign requirements for non-directional household lamps and Regulation (EC) No 245/2009 lays down ecodesign requirements for fluorescent lamps without integrated ballast, for high intensity discharge lamps, and for ballasts and luminaires able to operate such lumps.
Added to Sectors, General
*EU environment ministers welcome ‘green’ measures to tackle the economic crisis
The environment ministers meeting in Brussels on 2 March 2009 welcomed the ‘green’ measures proposed under the European Economic Recovery Plan. These measures are aimed at modernising Europe’s infrastructure by taking full advantage of environmental friendly transport modes, water and waste management and renewable energies. Increasing energy efficiency in buildings through the promotion of green technologies and development of energy-efficient manufacturing systems are also priority areas in the Recovery Plan context. In addition, the ministers urged member states and the Commission to encourage sustainable behaviour, for instance through eco-design, extended environmental labelling and pricing that reflects the environmental cost of a product.
Added to Sectors, Climate Change
*Bonn Climate Change Talks in preparation of Copenhagen
The first official UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting of the year is taking place in Bonn from 29 March until 8 April 2009. This first negotiations session is aimed at producing a draft document to succeed the Kyoto Protocol at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009. Parties meeting under the Convention will focus their discussions on issues relating to the scale of emissions reductions, improvements to emissions trading and the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon off mechanisms as well as on options for the treatment of land-use, land-use change and forestry. The opening of the Bonn Talks coincided with the renewed political commitment of the US towards the international climate talks.
*EU leaders agree on climate financing
EU heads of state and government meeting in Brussels on 19 and 20 March 2009 for their annual spring summit took further steps in preparation of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. The European Council recognised the need to provide financial sources to developing countries and concluded that the ‘EU is prepared to take its fair share of this financing in the framework of a global and comprehensive Copenhagen agreement’. However, EU leaders postponed the decision on concrete climate financing measures for their next summit scheduled for June 2009.
Added to Sectors, Energy
*EU leaders proposed the financing of energy projects
During the spring summit EU leaders reached a compromise on financing a of energy projects amounting to EUR 3.98 million in order to strengthen EU’s financial sector and increase energy security. The list of energy projects in the sectors of carbon capture and storage, offshore wind, gas and electricity must be agreed by the European Parliament to become final.
*Commission sent reasoned opinion to Italy for breach of renewable electricity law
The European Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Italy for its failure to recognise certain guarantees of origin from other EU Member States under the EU Directive on electricity production from renewable energy sources. Several companies have complained that Italy refused to recognise guarantees of origin from France, Greece and Slovenia for renewable energy produced in 2005. Italy argued that because these countries had not yet fully implemented the 2001 directive, their guarantees were not reliable. Following investigation, the Commission has found that the refusal to recognise guarantees of origin from 2005 is unjustified and called on Italy to take the necessary measures to comply with the Directive within two months.
Added to Sectors, Transport
*MEPs reached agreement on new aviation laws
On 25 March 2009 the European Parliament, after an agreement reached between EU transport ministers, adopted the “Single European Sky II” legislation, which aims to improve the performance and sustainability of Europe’s aviation system, the reduction of fuel consumption and the strengthening of the rules on ozone-depleting substances.
Added to Sectors, Nature and Agriculture
*Council confirms provisional prohibitions of genetically-modified maize in Hungary and Austria
Hungary and Austria will be allowed to maintain national safeguard clauses prohibiting the cultivation of two types of genetically-modified maize after environment ministers rejected European Commission proposals to lift the bans.
Added to Sectors, Waste
*Commission sent warnings to Spain and Italy for breach of EU waste laws
The European Commission sent a written warning to Spain for permitting the stockpiling of industrial waste in the Huelva estuary, in breach of EU environmental laws governing the treatment and disposal of industrial waste. Meanwhile, Italy received warnings for inadequate transposition of the EU landfill directive into Italian law.
Added to Sectors, Chemicals
*Commission completes pesticide review programme
The European Commission completed the review of existing pesticides that were on the market before 1993. This programme concerned about 1,000 substances, of which about 250 have passed the harmonised EU safety assessment, while 70 failed and were withdrawn from the market. A database on active substances is available on the website of the European Commission.
National Pages
The following national pages have been updated: France
Notably, the following information was introduced:
Added to National Pages, France
*French manufacturers face criminal sanctions under EU Reach chemical regulation
According to a new law implementing the EU’s Reach chemical regulation, French manufacturers will face criminal sanctions for failure to register a chemical substance regulated under Reach or for using banned substances in the manufacturing of products.
Added to Upcoming Events
*10th Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation 2009
The 10th Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation is part of an annual series of international conferences focussing on issues involved in designing and implementing environmentally related taxes. The Tenth Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation will be focusing on two topics, “Water Management and Climate Change”. The call-for-papers closes 15 April 2009.
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Date: 23-25 September 2009
*Air and Emission Monitoring Conference
MCerts 2009 is a specialist event for companies who provide products and services for Air & Emission Monitoring. In this event visitors will have the opportunity to participate in, and attend, workshops on case studies, problem solving and new applications on topics related to manual stack monitoring, ambient monitoring, CEMS, discontinuous monitoring, dioxin monitoring, data acquisition and operator monitoring assessment. This event is supported by the UK’s Environment Agency and the Source Testing Association.
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Date: 29-30 April 2009
*15th Cogeneration Europe Annual Conference 2009
The 15th COGEN Europe Annual Conference will examine how the cogeneration sector responds to economic downturn and how the sector should position itself to deliver the long term strategic advantage that Europe is looking for. This two-day conference will show best practise across the full range of cogeneration applications from industry and commercial, domestic and district heating. utive level representatives from stake holder groups including financers, equipment manufactures, technical experts and academics will take part in the conference.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Date: 21-22 April 2009
Added to Vacancies
*United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Senior Programme Officer, P-5
Under the overall leadership of the Division Director and in close collaboration with the UNEP Climate Change Coordinator, the incumbent will manage the implementation of outputs and activities of the UNEP climate sub-programme and strategy in the Division focusing on environmental law, governance and negotiations. The incumbent will also liaise with other UNEP Divisions and external partners and promote collaboration with Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), relevant UN Bodies, international governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Deadline: 11 May 2009
*United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Programme Officer (Chemicals), L-4
Under the overall supervision of the Director, the Programme Officer will support UNEP’s programme of work for harmful substances, participate in and organize regional meetings on the sound management of chemical substances, enhance the capacities and financing of governments and other stakeholders and act as the focal point for Chemicals and Waste MEA Secretariat, among others.
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Deadline: 16 April 2009
*Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), Senior Fellow: Climate and Energy Policy
The work areas and responsibilities of the Senior Fellow will include: keeping up to date on climate and energy policy developments in the EU tendering for and leading climate and energy policy analysis contracts from the European Commission writing analyses of climate and energy policy issues on an as-requested basis under contracts to the European Parliament, the European Environment Agency, and other bodies working with foundations and their ees to facilitate information exchange and supply research to further the goals of improving future policies and implementation of current ones, among others.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Deadline: open until filled
***************************************************************************
Editors-in-Chief:
Wybe Th. Douma (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Jens Hamer (Court of First Instance of the European Community, Luxemburg)*
* All views expressed are entirely personal and can in no way be attributed to the CFI or ECJ
Editors:
Leonardo Massai (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Efstathia Koutsopoulou (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Technical realisation:
Marco van der Harst (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
e-mail: eelnewsservices@asser.nl