MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
9 January 2001
pursuant to Rule 42(5) of the Rules of Procedure
by Caroline F. Jackson
on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy
on the satisfactory implementation of environment directives
B5‑0038/2001
European Parliament resolution on the satisfactory implementation of environment directives
The European Parliament,
- having regard to Oral Question B5-0556/00 by its Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy and having regard to the answer by the Commission,
- having regard to its reports on the implementation of Directive 96/59/EC on PCBs and PCTs, on the implementation of Directive 92/43/EC on habitats and on the implementation of Directive 91/676/EEC on nitrates,
1. Considers that Parliament's reports on the implementation of the above directives have shown that serious problems and excessive delays in the enforcement and implementation of these directives have arisen in the majority of the Member States;
2. Believes that this emphasises the importance of monitoring not only whether directives are correctly transposed into national law but also whether Member States are putting them into practice and providing the necessary resources to ensure that the directives adopted by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament at European Union level do what they are supposed to do in terms of delivering real improvements in environmental protection, consumer protection and public health;
3. Encourages the Member States and the Commission to learn the lessons from the implementation of the environmental directives with which many Member States have great difficulties; considers that setting out at an early stage the possibilities for achieving environmental objectives with good comparable parameters can prevent problems at a later stage;
4. Notes that the Member States have an appalling record of failing to produce the necessary reports and information on time, if at all; calls on all Member States to develop the necessary infrastructures and procedures for this to be remedied in the future, so that commitments that are entered into are actually met; further believes that this illustrates the need for a binding directive on environmental inspections;
5. Calls on the Commission to regularly publish in a clear and accessible form, to the general public, using the Internet for example, an updated scoreboard containing all current cases of infringement of EU legislation by Member State and the steps taken by the Commission to ensure compliance;
6. Calls on the Commission to produce on the same basis a positive scoreboard of measures taken by Member States effectively implementing EU environmental directives in such a way as to share models of good practice;
7. Considers that the Commission must take recourse to Article 228 in all cases where Member States have not complied with an ECJ judgment under Article 227 within two years; requests the Commission to draw up a schedule for payments to be applied to all Member States which have been found by the ECJ not to have complied with its earlier judgment;
8. Insists on the need for an urgent modification of the Treaty in order to ensure that the Commission fully plays its role as the ‘guardian of the Treaties’ by enabling it to bring infringement cases much more rapidly to the Court of Justice than is possible at present and to make more use of the provisions of Article 228 allowing the imposition of financial penalties;
9. Believes that the Commission must continue to play a central role in monitoring the implementation of these directives in its capacity as the guardian of the Treaties, but that the European Parliament must play a vital and complementary ‘oversight’ role as the only democratically elected body with a European Union-wide perspective on general problems of implementation within the different Member States; undertakes, therefore, to continue monitoring implementation of these directives on a systematic basis, and calls for the assistance of the other institutions, of the European Environment Agency and of all relevant NGOs and concerned parties in carrying out this task;
10. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council and to the governments and parliaments of the Member States.