Environmental Lawyers and Commission discuss European Environmental Law
On 24 November 2010, the tenth NEEL conference on European environmental law was held. NEEL is the Network of European Environmental Lawyers. In the course of the conference it emerged that it is not always clear how the REACH regulation for chemicals should be applied. Participants also discussed the new Commission approach to regulation, which emphasises “smart” instead of “better”.
NEEL stands for “Network or European Environmental Lawyers”. The network was established during the UK Presidency in 2005. The purpose of the network is to facilitate the exchange of information regarding EU environmental legislation between the lawyers working in the central environmental administration and the EU institutions. Such information exchange takes place not only at conferences, but also through an electronic platform.
Issues that were discussed
Three European Commission officials, three Belgian academics and one consultant introduced discussions on several controversial issues within European environmental legislation.
The first discussion was about the slow implementation of the REACH regulation. The application of this waste materials regulation also appeared to be a source of worry. From contributions to the debate and comments relating to the transposition of the new Waste Framework Directive, it became apparent that the vague and relatively open formulation of the provisions in this directive does not simplify matters at all.
A second discussion elaborated on what the new Commission approach to regulation could mean for the environmental policy sector. The main issue here will be whether “smart” instead of “better” will really result in a fundamentally different view on the problem. The representatives of DG Environment have indicated their intention to work together closely with Member States during all stages of the implementation of the regulation, but they also said they will continue to monitor transposition performance strictly..
The conference was concluded with a practical explanation on potential interventions by Member States concerning the procedures for interpretation of the law before the Court of Justice and with a broad interpretation of a selection of recent rulings made by thus Court in Luxembourg.
