EU environment ministers agree on liability and see to financial security

EU environment ministers have reached agreement on the directive on environmental liability at a meeting in Brussels at which ministers from the acceding states, including Malta, were present.

The directive, which will eventually apply also to acceding countries, is based on the polluter-pays principle and establishes a framework in which environmental damage can be prevented or remedied.

It requires operators to take preventive action where there is an imminent threat of damage and remedial action, at their own expense, when damage occurs.

The directive applies to all environmental damage, and imminent threat of damage, in relation to a wide range of activities, including those in Annex I of Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control.

It also covers industrial activities such as energy, production and processing of heavy metals, mineral industry, chemical industry and waste management.

For all other activities, the directive applies only in cases of damage to protected species and natural habitats. It also foresees the right of non-government organisations to request that action is taken by competent authorities in cases where rights under the directive are not being respected.

The convention also provides for a two-step financial security system. Member states shall actively encourage the development of financial security instruments and markets, including financial mechanisms in the case of insolvency. The aim is to enable insurance to cover environmental damage.

The second step is to be taken five years after the directive has come into force. The European Commission shall then report on the need and feasibility of a mandatory insurance system.

In certain cases, member states may allow a company not to bear the cost of remedying an environmental damage, for instance when an emission or event was expressly authorised.

When a company cannot be held liable, a member state may take the cost of the remedy itself.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström welcomed the agreement.

"After a decade of attempts to legislate EU-wide in this sensitive area we finally have an agreement. It is a new important step to put in place the polluter-pays principle and to protect the biodiversity in the EU."

Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino, who attended the meeting, said he too was satisfied that after 10 years of discussion, an agreement on the directive had been reached, even if the convention had been diluted from what it was when initially proposed.

"The Maltese government position was that it was important for the convention to come into force, even though it had been diluted.

"It is good to establish the principle on a European level. It is important to start and then change as we go along. But it sends a message not only to industry but also to European financial institutions that there needs to be insurances to cover for environmental degradation," Mr Pullicino said.

The convention is interesting for Malta because it covers transboundary pollution, which can easily affect Malta.

Mr Pullicino said that before the EU ministers' meeting there was a meeting with the "big eight" environment groups in the world and they too said that it was important for the convention to be launched, even though it had been "diluted".