WRITTEN QUESTION E-1983/02

by Kathleen Van Brempt (PSE) to the Commission

(8 July 2002)

Subject: Environment transparency clarity public involvement environmental policy and legislation

The public has a right to have access to information and documents from the Union institutions, which should operate in a more transparent fashion.

It is important that there should be further Community-level environmental protection measures and that they should be harmonised.

Public involvement in the work of the Union institutions is important.

All appropriate measures should be taken to foster such involvement in an effective manner.

European environmental legislation is relatively fragmented, which makes it less clear to the public.

The Commission:

- Does it think that a consolidated text on European environmental policy and legislation could help to ensure more effective compliance with the principles of the public's right of access, transparency and involvement?

- If not, why not, and does it think that the present institutional and regulatory framework for environmental policy and legislation is compatible with effective compliance with the above-mentioned principles?

- If so, what steps will it take to make this a reality, and when and how does it think that this project will produce a tangible impact?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(12 September 2002)

The Commission would draw the Honourable Member's attention to the fact that the public can access several Community law databases, and at least one of them is free of charge(1). These databases give users the tools they need to find the legislation they are looking for. They also allow the public to access documents relating to the various stages of adoption of Community legislation (Commission proposal, successive positions of Parliament and of the Council).

However, the Commission is aware that over the past 30 years Community environmental legislation has developed in a pragmatic fashion, sometimes in response to immediate requirements and without following an overall plan. This is also true of other sectors of Community law, such as food, veterinary law and agricultural legislation, and of national environmental law in most of the Member States.

The codification of Community environmental law would be a long-term project. The Member States which have begun to do this have usually set up a specialist committee to draft a codified text; the work normally takes several years.

Community environmental law has developed in such a way that a simple consolidation of texts would probably not be enough, as it would be necessary to establish consistency between provisions which can sometimes be divergent, fill in any gaps, review the terminology and amend the substance of some provisions. A private attempt to do this just in the waste sector produced a text of some 120 Articles of Community law.

Despite all these difficulties, the Commission is willing to examine the Honourable Member's proposal more closely and will inform her of its conclusions.

(1) Eur-Lex: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/index.html; Celex: http://www.europa.eu.int/celex/htm/celex_fr.htm, provides additional services and there is a charge for this reason.