"For the Greening of the European Union"
AUTOR : Nature Friends International (NFI)
Opinion on the 1996 Inter-Governmental Conference
On its road to a United Europe the European Union must amend its treaties,
so that it will eventually become also an environmental union. This
demand is raised by the Nature Friends International, based in Vienna,
which is the umbrella organisation of all Nature Friends Federations with
a
total membership of 600,000.
Although some progress has been observed in recent years in the European
Union's environmental policies, the Friends of Nature state with regret
that community
policies in general still place too much emphasis on promoting economic
growth and intensive farming.
At the UN-Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and in the
Council decision on adopting the Fifth Environmental Action Programme the
European Union committed itself to sustainable development. The White
Paper of the Commission on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment refers,
in Chapter
10, to the important connection between environment and employment
and endorses the demand for a new, environmentally sound and sustainable
community model
of development. From these individual commitments it follows that "sustainable
development" must be included as a priority objective in the Union Treaty.
The
Inter-Governmental Conference, which started in 1996, offers a perfect
opportunity to do so.
1. The Friends of Nature demand that the revision of the Maastricht
Treaty must include provisions for the full integration of environmental
protection in all community policies and for the introduction of "sustainable
development" as a priority objective of the European Union.
As regards the amendment of the Treaty, it is proposed that
the concept of "sustainable development" be
included in the preamble and in Art. 2;
environmental protection be given priority
over the free movement of goods in Art. 36;
the objective of the Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP) be newly worded in Art. 39. The objective of a new CAP ought to be
the promotion of extensive and
ecologically sound farming which ensures sufficient
supply of healthy, high-quality food produced without harming the natural
environment. Further, the
rehabilitation and maintenance of habitats
is to be promoted and farmers are to be compensated for their stewardship
of the environment;
environmental concerns and sustainable development
be considered and included in the fields of transport policy
(Art. 74 ff.), of aids granted by states (Art.
92 ff), of commercial policy (Art. 113) and of trans-European networks
(TEN) (Art. 129b);
the allocation of money from the Structural
Funds be guided by the objectives of sustainable development and that the
financing of projects be made
conditional upon environmental impact assessments
(Art. 130a);
more weight be given to sustainable development
when deciding on research expenditure, e.g. by promoting technologies working
with renewable energy
rather than promoting nuclear energy (Art.
130f).
2. To render environmental policies more effective, it will also be necessary to modify the Union's decision-making procedures.
The co-decision procedure ought to be the procedure
of choice when the Parliament or the Council adopt fiscal measures affecting
the environment.
Especially when adopting environmental policies
(Art. 130r - t), the co-decision procedure ought to be used instead of
four clumsy, complex and confusing
procedures.
3. In all environmental matters member states ought to be expressly
granted the option of adopting stricter national provisions (Art. 100a,
para.4).
4. Provision should be made for stricter sanctions in case of non-compliance
with the judgments of the European Court of Justice (Art. 169, 171, 175).
5. New policy areas that ought to be included in the Treaty: animal protection, energy policy and spatial planning.
Animal protection: The absence of pertinent
legal provisions has meant that Commission legislation on agriculture,
research, transport, commerce and
environment frequently neglects aspects of
animal protection. Animal protection ought to be given higher priority
in community law and in shaping community
policies.
Energy policy: currently, the Treaty does not
contain any provisions pertaining explicitly to energy policy, although
Union action within the framework of the
Single Market and with respect to environmental
matters impacts in many ways on energy policy. The energy-policy measures
provided for in the ECSC,
EURATOM and Maastricht Treaties pursue diverse
objectives. Hence, the Treaty ought to be revised to include a common,
binding energy policy. Again the
benchmark for objectives must be sustainable
development. Renewable energies, energy saving schemes and measures for
a better use of energy ought to be
specially promoted.
To this end, fundamental changes need to be
made in the EURATOM-Treaty: the core objective can no longer be the promotion
of nuclear energy but the
protection of people and the environment from
the hazards and the phasing out of nuclear energy.
Spatial planning: here again the policies of
the European Union have for a long time affected European space development.
A variety of EU regulations and
directives (e.g. on the planning of trans-European
networks or on agricultural and regional policies) have in practice implied
spatial planning measures without
inscribing them in and checking them against
a coherent programme. Sustainable development is impossible without an
agreed policy of land use. The different
conditions prevailing in the European regions
call for a coherent policy of land use, taking due account of economic,
ecological but also of social effects.
Issues such as overpopulation (metropolisation
and centralisation) and depopulation of individual regions, the specific
needs of peripheral and mountain areas
or the planning of trans-European traffic
and transport routes can no longer be dealt with meaningfully and correctly
at member-state level. What is required is
a European space development scheme which
serves as a guideline for national policy-making.
In particular, the Treaty must provide that
member states planning to take measures which affect the territories of
other member states are obliged to inform
and to consult all the states concerned, and
that actions are discussed and agreed.
Any future space development scheme of the
EU will, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, only relate
to measures taken at the European level and
to EU policies. Nationally, regionally and
locally limited spatial planning measures will remain unaffected, although
there is pent-up demand, also at these
levels, for coherent, socially, ecologically
and economically balanced space development policies.
6. Orientation of EU foreign policy towards peace and security
Any re-orientation of the EU's foreign policy towards military interventionism
would be a serious setback in the Union's progress towards more global
responsibility.
The Nature Friends International demands that at the Inter-Governmental
Conference the EU's foreign policy be set on a course towards non-offensive
defence,
peacekeeping and non-military resolution of conflicts. Any participation
in military peace operations must be subject to a decision of either the
UN-Security Council
or the OSCE.
Naturfreunde Internationale
Diefenbachgasse 36
A-1150 Wien
Tel. ++43 1 892 38 77
Fax ++43 1 812 97 89
FONTE : http://europa.eu.int/en/agenda/igc-home/instdoc/ngo/nfien.htm