EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Nonwovens Industry 34, No.9, Sept.2003, p.22-3 EU ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY COULD IMPACT NONWOVENS... 

The European Union (EU) environmental policy has put water protection and its sustainable management high on its agenda, reflected by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), which is now in its implementation phase. 

Pesendorfer, Dieter (2006) EU environmental policy under pressure chemicals policy change between antagonistic goals Environmental Politics 15 95. 

France exhibits the most clear-cut case of REACH catalysing change in a national approach. REACH has forced the government to evaluate the future of its chemical industry. In turn, this has enabled the incorporation of a wider set of actors into chemicals policy debate47. Therefore, although France may be a fence-sitter when it comes to EU environmental policy development (Section 1.6), it has the propensity to leap off the fence and provide a structured response at the national level. 

The Impact of the Pioneers on EU Environmental Policy, European Environmental Policy The Pioneers, Eds., M.S. Andersen and D. Liefferink, Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK, 1997, p.l. 

M. Glachant, The Need for Adaptability in EU Environmental Policy Design and Implementation, European Environment, 2001, 11, 5, 239. 

The EU greenhouse gas emission trading scheme constitutes a pathbreaking new chapter in EU environmental law and policy. It is the first continent-wide cap-and-trade scheme that has been put in place and several aspects of the implementation of the scheme created a formidable challenge for authorities at European and national level. Never before has an EU environmental policy created an economic asset whose annual value runs into the tens of billions of Euros and has set up a process of shared tasks among the European and national levels to organise the distribution of these valuable assets to private economic actors. 

Frank Convery, B.Agr.Sc., M.Agr.Sc., M.S., Ph.D., is Heritage Trust Professor of Environmental Policy at University College Dublin. He is active on a number of EU-wide investigations and bodies. He has written extensively on resource and environmental economics issues with particular reference to agriculture, forestry, energy, minerals, land use, urbanisation, environment and development in developing countries. At present, his research relates to EU environmental policy with particular reference to the use, potential and effectiveness of market-based instruments. 

CLRTAP and its protocols set a precedent for international environmental policy that the European Community adopted to a large extent. The following sections review the development of EU environmental policy and then highlight the linkages between the two institutions policies and policy development. 

In Jime 2001, the EU Committee of the Regions emphasised the need for IPP to be framed on the basis of the fundamental principles imderpinning EU environmental policy. They are ... 

Towards a green economy in Europe EU environmental policy targets and objectives 2010-2050, EEA Report No. 812013, European Environmental Agency, Copenhagen, 2013. 

Knill, C. and A. Lenschow, 2005. Compliance, communications and competition patterns of EU environmental policy making and their impact on policy convergence. European Environment 15,114-128. 

In what is being called the most far-reaching overhaul of European Union environmental policy ever, the European Commission released a draft policy proposal on May 7 that, if enacted, would require virtually all manufacturers of chemicals to provide risk assessments and other information regarding products they sell or ship into the EU. Chemicals would also have to be registered with the EC and many downstream users of products that contain chemical entities would have to file paperwork as well. The Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals, or REACH, proposal would apply to approximately 30,000 new and existing chemicals, and test data would have to be developed on some 5000 specific chemical entities, many of which have been commonly used for decades. EUROPEAN COMMISSION... 

Unlike the discussion on environmental policy in the 1980s, support for a strict continuation of environmental and health policy appears rather to have waned. After some scandalous classic hazards were reduced, actions for precautionary risk reduction again appear to be weighted more against the requirements of industrial and economic policy. This is also reflected in the fact that the latest initiatives by the EU Commission in the area of enviromnental and chemicals pohcy were accompanied by an intensive discussion of the correct method for assessing the consequences of legislation. 

In 2000, the European Commission issued a communication on the precautionary principle (EU 2000), in which it adopted a procedure for the application of this concept. The precautionary principle is not defined in the treaty, which prescribes it only once - to protect the environment. But in practice, its scope is much wider, beyond that of environmental policy, and, specifically where preliminary objective scientific evaluation, indicates that there are reasonable grounds for concern that the potentially dangerous effects on the environment, human, animal, or plant health may be inconsistent with the high level of protection chosen for the Community. The precautionary principle is implemented, for example, in the EU food law and also affects, among others, policies relating to consumer protection, trade and research, and technological development. 

EU (2008). Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 estabhshing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy. Directive 2008/56/EC. 

A new model has been devised to specifically meet these political challenges of Europe s environmental policy with regard to chemical products as included in the 6th Environment Action Programme of the EU, which stipulates the following requirements (literature quote) ... 

There is a stark contrast between the results for the aluminium smelting sector and those for the other sectors. In short, because aluminium smelting is assumed to be a global market, even relatively small changes in cost are predicted to have significant impacts on the competitiveness of UK/EU companies relative to global companies (which are assumed not to have environmental policies applied to them). 

Andonova, L. (2004) Transnational politics of the environment The EU and environmental policy in Central and Eastern Europe. Cambridge, MA MIT. 

DiGangi, J. (2003) US intervention in EU chemical policy. Environmental Health Fund, Chicago. http //www.cleanproduction.org/library/USIntervention.pdf. Cited 17 June 2010. 

The role of environmental advocacy organisations in the diffusion of chemical safety and environmental policies from the EU to the Central and Eastern Europe states has been surprisingly limited. The vacuum of societal activism on the issue illustrates once again the critical meditating role of actor associations in linking domestic and EU regulatory and normative arenas. 

At the EU level, environmental NGOs were also ambivalent and fragmented in their interest in accession and the diffusion of chemical safety policies, compared to the highly centralised and highly involved position of CEFIC. EU environmental NGOs developed an interest in enlargement relatively late, and for the most part... 

There has also been a shift in governmental use of policy tools from input to output centred instruments (Pierre and Peters 2000), with evaluations and inspections being examples of two policy instruments that have grown in importance (Johansson 2006). It has also been suggested that these changes have been fostered by the expansion of the European Union, mainly because regulations are the EU s most common policy instrument (Majone 1996). Regulations dominate within the area of environmental policy in Europe, even if economic and communicative policy instruments also are used (Mac Neil et al. 2002). 

J. Solbe, Project HERA (Human and Environmental Risk Assessment) An Industry Initiative Anticipating the New EU Chemicals Policy, Greener Management International, 2003, 41, 21. 

The third and final aspect of the precautionary principle refers to the burden of proof for improving damage to health and the environment. It is typically regulators who are responsible for conducting risk assessments and ensuring a high level of health and environmental protection. The new EU chemicals policy seeks to reverse the burden of proof , requiring companies to do risk assessments and thereby demonstrate safe use for all chemicals (Section 2.4.1). 

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