Approach of the European Union/ Community in Framing Environmental Policy and Law Necessitates
The European Union/ Community consider the importance of continuous sustainability of the environment for the welfare and future of men.
The Principle of Sustainability was included in the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties on European Union, as well as in the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The European Community and its Member States adopted the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 and is for the swift realization of the priority actions agreed at UNCED.
Sustainable Development and Sustainability
Sustainability is one of the foremost goals mentioned in the 1987 The World Commission on Environment and Development headed by the Prime Minister of Norway, Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland report called Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report). It first mentioned the need of incorporating sustainable development into the international agenda. The report defined sustainable development as:
"Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"
The Bruntland report focused on seven strategic areas to attain sustainable development. These are: stimulating growth; renewing the quality of growth; providing for essential needs such as jobs, food, energy, water and sanitation; ensuring a sustainable level of population; conserving and enhancing the resource base; reorienting technology and
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addressing risk; considering both environment and economics in coming up with decisions. It also stresses the fact that the state of our technology and social organization, particularly a lack of integrated social planning, affects the world's ability to meet human needs whether in the present or the future.
The Bruntland Report cites the following principles and steps in achieving sustainability:
Principles of Sustainability:
- Aim to achieve sustainability in everything one does
- Promote sustainable practices
- Educating people to promote behavioural change towards sustainability
- No compromise for the generations' future by curbing unsustainable activities
- Promote more sustainable solutions, strategies and ideas in addressing concepts, problems or issues in business, government and communities
How to attain sustainability:
- Promote an environment which supports human dignity thru equality and intergenerational respect
- Promote honesty and integrity in everyday life
- Promote fair distribution of wealth
- Protect the health and safety of all
- Maintain and enhance the natural environment
- Wise use of natural resources, such as water and land by reducing consumption
- Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle
- Use of “green” products with reduced packaging
- Using and behavioural change to achieve sustainability
- Support ethical business practices
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- Promote good corporate control in business
- Support financial success through transparency
European Union Environmental Law specifies in Art. 2 that "respecting the environment" is one of the pillars which the common market in EU and the economic union shall be based upon. Art 36 consists of a restriction concerning the development of the common market. Such restrictions can be explained by citing the grounds on the need to protect health and life of humans, animals or plants.
A number of environmental issues are standardized in the secondary legislation. Directive 75/439 and Directive 78/319, for example, give the Member states the opportunity to use taxes in the sector of waste oils, and toxic and dangerous waste - in compliance with the polluter pays-principle.
And in Directive 94/22 - the so called "oil directive" - concerning "the conditions for granting and using authorizations for the prospection, exploration and production of hydrocarbons", the Member States can make use of safeguarding the environment as one of the basis for authorization.
Art 6 in this Directive states that “the Member States may to the extent justified by national security, public health, protection of the environment and so on, impose conditions and requirements" for these actions. The present and the future environmental aspects are and will be considered in a much greater level. Environmental matters are taken into account in all areas of the European Community. Art 100 also states that the proposals from the Commission pertaining to environmental protection shall be based on a "high level of protection."
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The following are the more specific principles concerning the jurisdiction of the European environmental law:
The Precautionary and Preventative Principles/ Environmental Impact Assessment EC Council Directive 85/337 and The Problem of Burden of Proof
The Third Environmental Action Programme focused strongly on the prevention principle and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (EIA Directive 85/337) states that "the best environment policy consists in preventing the creation of pollution or nuisances at source, rather than subsequently trying to counteract their effects". This is synonymous with the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In the end, preventing is easier and better than curing the problem.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the procedure implemented which aims to determine the environmental effects whether negative or positive with regards to development proposals. Its main goal is to avert, lessen and counter any adverse effects brought about by development.
