Debate: The Right to a Healthy Environment
Date: TUESDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2021
Speaker: Mairead McGuinness
Language: EN

The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is therefore related to other rights and international obligations and it has a direct impact on our livelihood. The planetary crisis is the defining crisis of our time. With the European Green Deal we’ve put tackling climate and environmental challenges at the very top of the European agenda. There will be no sustainable future or human well-being without tackling this crisis – climate, biodiversity and of course pollution. The Commission welcomes the attention that this Parliament is giving to an important matter, and we take good note of your call for a right to a healthy environment in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.  The EU actively supports the implementation of the Charter. The Charter sets out the principle of integrating environmental protection into the policies of the Union. It requires that, and I quote, ‘A high level of environmental protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment must be integrated into the policies of the Union and ensured in accordance with the principle of sustainable development.’ The Commission is fully playing its role and is monitoring the progress made in mainstreaming fundamental rights in all aspects of climate and environmental action.  In the same spirit, existing EU environmental laws contain safeguards to ensure a healthy environment, and the Court of Justice of the European Union has recognised that such legislation gives individuals the opportunity to challenge decisions or omissions by public authorities that infringe these rights. Since it was included in the Treaty of Amsterdam more than 20 years ago, sustainable development has been one of the fundamental objectives of the European Union. For example, it is enshrined in Article 11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which I quoted earlier.  Other pieces of EU environmental legislation have specific requirements related to the protection of human health, for example. We have laws on air quality, bathing water and drinking water. These requirements create rights which can be invoked by individuals and environmental associations before national courts.  The Court of Justice has also confirmed that environmental associations are entitled to bring forward judicial challenges related to the protection of nature. We are happy to see that this has contributed significantly to finding practical ways to protect, conserve and restore our biodiversity.  Another objective of the Green Deal is to improve access to justice, both at EU and national level. We are pursuing different actions to ensure that citizens can obtain information, participate in decision-making and go to court on environmental matters. More recently, the Aarhus Regulation was amended by the co-legislators to increase the possibility for civil society and the wider public to scrutinise EU decisions affecting our environment.  By working on these key areas the EU is taking concrete steps to implement the requirements of the Charter. We want to improve the health and quality of life of citizens and protect the health and wellbeing of people from environmental-related risks. At the international level, the EU and its Member States are actively promoting discussions in the United Nations, including in the context of the UN General Assembly and in the Human Rights Council, on the right to a healthy environment. Together with Member States, we regularly sponsor resolutions on the subject and fully supported the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to a healthy environment.  Just last month, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe proposed a draft for an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. We therefore particularly welcome the resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council a few days ago, which for the first time recognises the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.  The European Union is very much at the forefront of global efforts to fulfil the right to a healthy environment. An example, the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy acknowledges that human rights are increasingly intertwined with global environmental challenges. In order to achieve the actions in this plan, we will be working to support third countries to fulfil their obligations to protect the environment and the health of their citizens. We will be doing so by massively investing in green priorities in the EU’s external funding and by delivering on our ambitious spending targets on climate and biodiversity. This includes doubling the EU’s biodiversity spending, as announced by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech.  Another key area to invest in is environmental governance and justice. Human rights laws require states to take special measures to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of those who are most at risk from environmental harm. Access to justice in environmental matters and access to information and public participation in decision-making are fundamental human rights. They are enshrined in Implementing Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and international instruments such as the Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement. These are good examples of how we are working to involve powerful agents of change in our societies, notably human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, minorities, women and young people in policymaking. This is all in pursuit of a just transition for all.  I applaud the environmental human rights defenders who are on the frontline protecting the rights of their communities, communities who are often among the first to suffer the effects of environmental degradation and climate change. The EU provides protection to environmental human rights defenders and indigenous peoples who are facing unprecedented levels of threats and attacks. It is worth, but sad, to recall a very worrying situation. Last year, 2020, at least 331 human rights defenders were killed. Sixty-nine percent of them were working on land, indigenous and environmental rights. This is wholly unacceptable.  Since its launch in 2015, ProtectDefenders.eu has supported almost 12 000 land and environmental rights and indigenous rights defenders, 6 370 of whom were women, representing the main group supported by this EU-funded mechanism.  All this said, there is still much more to do. We need to ensure that every single citizen enjoys their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and I want to give you the assurance that the Commission will continue to take action, both locally and globally, to make this a reality.