Activites

• #2030
• 1997/10/07 Council Meeting
• 1997/09/22 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1997/07/17 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0406/1997 summary

    In adopting the report by Mrs Ilona GRAENITZ (PSE, A), the European Parliament expressed the view that environmental agreements were a dynamic instrument and that they could be used to supplement legislation or even, in certain cases, take its place. Nonetheless, binding legislation must remain the backbone of the Union's environmental policy. Parliament stressed that environmental agreements must be transparent, enforceable, reliable and legally binding on all parties. Accordingly, when implementing environmental agreements, the legal protection of the parties legally concerned and of third parties must be ensured in the same way as it was when implementing legislation. The Commission was called upon to seek the best way of providing such protection. More generally, Parliament considered that environmental agreements could only be successful if the following criteria were met: - parties to an agreement must have the requisite powers to conclude and implement them, and there must be clear provisions concerning legal succession and bankruptcy, - legally binding objectives, and intermediate objectives in every case, - mechanisms for monitoring of the objectives either by the public authorities or by an independent body, - a clear indication of the duration of the agreement, as well as a precise definition of the circumstances in which sanctions were to be triggered, - definition of the parties, - openness. Parliament called on the Commission to draw up proposals for a possible procedure for granting a negotiating mandate for any environmental agreements at Community level, ensuring however that the European Parliament was involved, in accordance with Article 130s(3) of the EC Treaty, both in the granting of the negotiating mandate and during the negotiations themselves. �

• 1997/07/16 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• #2017
• 1997/06/19 Council Meeting
• 1997/06/19 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0224/1997
• #1990
• 1997/03/03 Council Meeting
  • 1990
• 1997/01/17 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1996/11/27 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1996)0561 summary

    OBJECTIVE: the purpose of the Commission communication is to promote and facilitate use of voluntary environmental agreements concluded with industry and public authorities. This initiative falls within the strategy of the Fifth Environmental Action Programme. SUBSTANCE: for the purpose of this communication environmental agreements represent agreements between industry and public authorities on the achievement of environmental objectives. Such agreements can be legally binding with obligations for the parties. They can also take the form of unilateral commitments on the part of industry recognized by the public authorities. The environmental agreements have the advantage of encouraging the industrial sector to anticipate and favour, on a voluntary basis, viable, appropriate and clean solutions and to meet more quickly the objectives desired than through the traditional method of legislation. In order to encourage their use the communication sets out general guidelines to ensure their transparency, which is essential if they are to be effective. The Commission suggests the following criteria: prior consultation of the interested circles; a binding form; quantified objectives and a staged approach; right of access to the agreement by third parties; monitoring of implementation; publication of the agreements and the results achieved. The Commission also addresses a recommendation to the Member States in order to provide a clear framework for the use of environmental agreements as an implementation tool of Community directives. �

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1996)0561
• Debate in Council: 1990
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0224/1997
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0406/1997

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)