9 Amendments of Antoni COMÍN I OLIVERES related to 2020/2027(INI)
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Recalls that the Union should not merely promote a high level of environmental protection on its own territory, but should also take all possible action to prevent environmental damage anywhere in the world caused by companies based in Member States; recalls that environmental damage is particularly frequent and serious in developing countries due to factors such as less stringent legislative frameworks for environmental protection or the industrial and extractive activity of multinational corporations in those countries;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission to consider a proposal for a reform of the Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law in order to broaden the list of types of conduct classified as environmental offences and to establish a minimum framework of penalties to ensure that it has a deterrent effect throughout the EU; Urges the EU to make the fight against environmental crime an overriding strategic political priority in international judicial cooperation and for the EU institutions and COPs, notably by promoting compliance with MEAs through the adoption of criminal sanctions, through exchanges of best practices and by promoting the enlargement of the scope of the International Criminal Court to cover criminal acts that amount to ecocide;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls that the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) is crucial to the implementation of the ‘polluter pays’ principle; deplores the fact that liability rules have largely not been applied and are unable to fulfil their compensatory and preventive functions; believes that, in order to ensure effective compliance with the ‘polluter pays’ principle, the Environmental Liability Directive should establish a strict liability regime for any kind of environmental damage or situation of imminent danger to the environment, including in situations where damage is the result of explicitly authorised activities or where the potential damage of such actions could not have been known when the actions took place, and provide for the non- applicability of statutory limitations to penalty proceedings;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Considers that, in order to achieve a high level of environmental protection, the scope of the Environmental Liability Directive should be extended to include any type of conduct that is harmful to or creates an immediate risk for the environment, especially any type of imminent risk for, or damage to, water and soil;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the barriers to holding companies liable for environmental harm, such as the regime of limited liability, insolvency, barriers to access to justice, latency and causal uncertainty and the lack of detail in the assessment criteria for environmental damage;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Considers that all Member States should establish strict civil liability regimes to determine the redress to be provided for any direct damage caused to individuals as a result of environmental damage caused by an operator; calls on the Commission to present a legislative proposal to that effect.
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that companies may abuse their limited liability to invest in hazardous industries through separate legal entities in order to externalise environmental costs; recalls the governance gap in global value chains; calls for the scope of strict liability to be extended to parent companies to avoid the risk of moral hazard; stresses the importance of free trade agreements signed by the EU incorporating clauses ensuring a high level of environmental protection in connection with industrial production in developing countries;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the development a harmonised framework of mandatory solvency guarantees to cover the ELD liabilities of companies in the event of insolvency to boost the preventive effect of said directive and to search for an optimal mix between future EU legislation on mandatory environmental due diligence, and administrative, civil and criminal enforcement regimes aiming to address environmental harm;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses the need to improve access to justice for victims of environmental harm, i.e. through collective actions and redress mechanisms, primarily under a binding and enforceable UN treaty on business and human rights; recalls in this regard the exemplary role that the future mandatory due diligence directive should play in connection with the establishment of mechanisms to ensure that victims of environmental damage in third countries have effective access to justice in Member States when the harmful activities have been carried out by companies based in an EU Member State or by legal persons under the control of such companies; calls on the Union and its Member States to push for the creation of an international independent authority in the field of environmental liability.