WRITTEN QUESTION E-0443/96 by Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PSE) to the Commission (29 February 1996)

Subject: EC eco-audit Regulation and requirements for environmental management systems (standardization)

1. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has submitted a draft standard ISO/DIS 14001 for environmental management-system specifications and implementation guidelines, which is to be recognized simultaneously by the Commission as a European CEN standard pursuant to Article 19 of eco-audit Regulation (EEC) No 1836/93 ((OJ L 168, 10.7.1993, p. 1. )). Does the Commission take the view that the draft standard conforms to the requirements for environmental management systems laid down in Articles 2 and 3 and in Annex I of the eco-audit Regulation?

2. What requirements of the eco-audit Regulation are not present in draft standard ISO/DIS 14001 or are fixed at a lower or non-comparable level of requirement?

3. What is the Commission's view in particular of the fact that, pursuant to the eco-audit Regulation, monitoring for compliance with all environmental provisions is an included requirement, whereas draft standard ISO/DIS 14001 does not stipulate this?

4. Does the Commission see the danger that draft standard ISO/DIS 14001 could allow the requirements fixed by the eco-audit Regulation to be circumvented?

5. Will the Commission take steps to ensure that a standard is created at European Standards level (CEN) that complies with the requirements of the eco-audit Regulation?

6. As regards British Standard BS 7750:1994, Irish Standard IS 310: First Edition and Spanish Standard UNE 77/801(2)-94 applications for recognition pursuant to Article 12 of the eco-audit Regulation have been submitted. What requirements of the Regulation are not present in the said standards or are fixed at a lower or non-comparable level of requirement?

7. How will the Commission ensure, given recognition of standards not complying with the requirements of the eco-audit Regulation, that adherence to uniform requirements can nevertheless be monitored Europe-wide by the environmental verifiers?

8. Does the Commission take the view that recognition of national or European standards by the Commission would stand up to an investigation by the European Court of Justice if those standards did not comply with the requirements of the eco-audit Regulation?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (24 April 1996)

1. Article 12 of the EMAS (eco-management and audit scheme) Regulation ((Council Regulation N° 1836/93 of 29.6.1993 - OJ n° L 168 10.7.1993. )) provides for the recognition of national, international and European standards. The Commission would not intend to proceed towards recognition of the ISO norm until it achieves the status of a full standard. Accordingly, no detailed assessment has yet been made by the Commission to establish the degree to which the draft ISO 14001 standard corresponds to the requirements of EMAS.

2. As mentioned above, the Commission has not yet undertaken any detailed analysis, so a full answer on this point is not yet possible. Nevertheless, on the basis of preliminary analysis it is clear that some differences do exist - for example clearly the ISO standard does not meet the EMAS Regulation's requirements regarding public information. Once the full international standard is available the Commission will carry out a detailed analysis and it will only recognise the standard to the extent that it contains elements which correspond to the requirements of the Regulation.

3. If the standard does not correspond with the requirements of the Regulation in this respect the Commission decision on which the recognition is based will identify this. This means that a certificate issued against the standard would not be deemed to cover this area and would leave the responsibility for checking compliance with this aspect of the Regulation with the EMAS verifier. The duty to comply with environmental legislation exists irrespective from ISO or EMAS.

4. No. Only if the standard fully meets the requirements of the various elements of the Regulation will recognition be granted for that element of the Regulation.

5. The Commission has already given CEN a clear mandate (accepted in October 1994) in this area:

"CEN are asked to draw up standards to be introduced across the Community to reflect the contents of the Eco-management and Audit Regulation. The following subjects will in particular need to be covered:

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For the environmental statement, the request is for programming, in view of a possible European standard at a later stage.¨

Nevertheless the mandate recognises that "some of these specifications could appear in associated guidelines, in particular in order to facilitate collaboration and coherence with ISO standardisation in this field. In such cases, for the aims of Article 12 of Regulation 1836/93, certification procedures should cover all the relevant elements and specifications.¨

6. The Commission decisions for each of these standards have been published in the Official journal ((OJ n° L 34, 13.2.1996. )). Each identifies the areas of the Regulation for which the standard is deemed to have a corresponding requirement. In all other areas of the Regulation the requirements of the standards are not felt to be sufficient to justify recognition of equivalence - the EMAS verifier will continue to check these areas.

7. Recognition of standards is decided on an element by element basis. Only those elements which meet, in full, the requirements of the Regulation are listed in the Commission decision. The Commission does not believe that adoption of this approach will adversely affect the consistent implementation of the Regulation.

8. The Commission believes that in recognising the national standards presented by the Member States for recognition it was acting accordance with the requirements of Article 12 of the Regulation. The Recognition only extends to those elements of the Regulation for which the standard has corresponding requirements. Should this issue be brought to the Court of justice it will of course be for the Court to decide if the Commission acted correctly.