On the effectiveness of monitoring the application of eu environmental law
| Autor | Ludwig Krämer |
| Cargo del Autor | Anterior director de la unidad legal,Dirección de Medio Ambiente, Comisión Europea |
| Páginas | 11-41 |
ON THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF MONITORING THE APPLICATION
OF EU ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Ludwig
KRÄMER
Anterior director de la unidad legal,
Dirección de Medio Ambiente, Comisión Europea
I. THE APPLICATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL
LAW - AN UNDERDEVELOPED AREA OF INTEREST
EU environmental law has, in about forty years of its existence 1,
covered most of the areas of law which are generally considered to con-
stitute «environmental law», such as water, air and climate change, na-
ture conservation and noise, waste, liability for environmental damage,
as well as several more horizontal issues such as access to environmen-
tal information, public participation in environmental decision-making,
environmental impact assessment (dangerous) chemicals, genetically
obligation to integrate environmental requirements into other EU poli-
cies and activities 2 brought numerous legislative acts of agricultural
heading of environmental law 3. Finally, the EU adhered to a consider-
1
was Directive 75/439 on waste oils of 16 June 1975, OJ 1975, L 194 p. 23.
2 Article 11 TFEU: «Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the
promoting sustainable development».
3 See on EU environmental law in general, Jan
JANS
-Hans
VEDDER
, EU Environmental Law,
4th ed., 2011; Suzanne
KINGSTON
-Veerle
HEYWAERT
-Alexandra
CAVOSKI
, European Environmen-
12 LUDWIG KRÄMER
able number of international environmental agreements which became
thus binding for the EU itself and for its Member States 4.
The application of this environmental law within the European
Union has received, until now, a rather limited attention, but wrongly
so. Lawyers appear to attach more importance to the interpretation of
(environmental) law than to its effective application. They might be
law of persons who transport or are transported, competition law the
law of competitors, etc. 5. These social groups very actively particulate
in the elaboration and later application of «their» sectoral law, by lob-
studies, organizing conferences and events and discussion the media to
promote their arguments, spread news through associations and groups
to inform the members of their group of positive or negative legal and
political developments in their sector, discuss the economic impacts
of measures, voice their concern, when the law in their sector appears
disadvantageous for them, etc.
The environment has no such vested-interest group behind it. It is
a general interest without a group. Environmental non-governmental
organizations in Europe are structurally and financially much too
weak to be able to defend environmental interests over a prolonged
period of time. Linguistic difficulties and other problems do not
allow them to organize themselves effectively beyond national
boundaries, in contrast to trade, industry or agricultural groups. En-
vironmental ministries, where they exist in Member States, normally
have a limited influence on national and EU policy- making. As the
EU environment suffers from slow, but progressive degradation —
examples are the slowly rising temperatures which signal climate
change, the loss of biodiversity, soil erosion or the air pollution in
urban agglomerations— media interest in the environment is limited
and principally activated in cases of accidents or sudden, unexpected
events which cause environmental damage. However, where con-
flicts between the protection of the general interest «environment»
and vested interests appear, very regularly the environment loses. In
tal Law, 2017; Ludwig
KRÄMER
, EU Environmental Law, 8th ed., 2015; Maria
LEE
, EU Envi-
ronmental Law. Governance and Decision-Making, 2nd ed., 2015; Geert
VAN CALSTER
-Leonie
REINS
, EU Environmental Law, 2017. There are furthermore presentations of EU environmental
law in the different other EU languages.
4 Article 216(2) TFEU: «Agreements concluded by the Union are binding upon the institu-
tions of the Union and on its Member States».
5 This remark is made, despite the fact that there is also a general interest of society to have
the very important vested interest aspect in most sectors of economy-related law is obvious.
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