The European Parliament,

- having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Collins and others on ending industrial waste dumping in the North Sea,

- having regard to its previous resolutions on protection of the North Sea and the measures required to achieve this,

- having regard to the positions and resolutions adopted in this respect by the Council and the Commission,

- having regard to the motions for resolutions on the results of the North Sea Conferences,

- having regard to the decisions of the recent North Sea Conference in The Hague,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection,

A. pointing to the urgent need to take drastic action to clean up the North Sea,

B. noting the efforts already made by some Member States and the many initiatives which still have to be taken to make the North Sea once again a viable environment in the interests of ecology, recreation, fisheries, shipping, tourism and the inhabitants of the coastal regions,

C. noting that some progress has been achieved at the North Sea Conferences; believing that the decisions taken at the recent conference in The Hague suggest that this process is slowing down, but that this problem can be solved through a more liberal interpretation of the 1990 agreements,

D. having regard to the forthcoming conference in Denmark in 1995 and to the interim conference planned for 1993 which will be concerned with the problem of pesticides in particular and agriculture in general,

I. Decides to call on the countries participating in the North Sea Conferences and the Commission, as contracting partners, to take the action set out below:

Legal

1. Include arbitration procedures in their joint agreements, in order to make the legal proceedings provided for in the Treaty more effective;

2. Ensure that their agreements will take precedence over the legislation of the Community, the Member States and the regions, so that they will in future be genuine international treaties;

With regard to the policy principles

3. Explicitly recognize the precautionary principle, as defined in the explanatory statement to this resolution, as a fundamental principle of all proposals for EC legislation on protection of the marine environment;

4. Include in their undertakings commitments on results together with a definite time scale;

5. Follow up the need to tackle pollution at source (emission) and not as it affects the environment (emission), using as a basis the clean production principle, which is a logical consequence of the precautionary principle;

6. Systematically replace the principle of best available technology with that of clean production methods and technology, with priority for alternatives to the use of dangerous substances and processes; in cases where ministerial agreements have accepted the principle of best available technology this technology should be carefully defined and identified, with detailed reasons why a given technology is the best available and how it can be brought in line with the precautionary principles;

7. Apply these principles for North Sea policy in full to other European seas such as the Baltic, the Irish Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean;

With regard to implementation of the resolutions

8. Take legal action against co-signatories who fail to implement the decisions; calls in particular on the Commission, as co-signatory of the Treaty and in line with its working programme for 1991, to institute legal proceedings against Belgium because of the continuing high level of pollution of the Scheldt and the Maas, with its adverse effects on supplies of drinking water;

9. Establish a uniform measuring method so that recorded values are comparable; the lack of uniform measuring methods, conclusive scientific proof of damage to the marine environment or generally accepted data on current levels of pollution must not be used as an excuse for failing to take legislative action;

10. With regard to the interim conference of 1993, call for appropriate measures to be taken so that data can be gathered in respect of each Member State on the production, import and use of the various chemical substances which are used as pesticides;

11. With regard to drafting proposals for EEC legislation

- go beyond the 36 priority dangerous substances included in Annex 1A of the Ministerial Declaration of 7 and 8 March 1990,

- formulate proposals for a reduction in the use of all substances which are regarded as dangerous to health and the environment, as evidenced by the fact that they occur on the black and grey lists of international conventions, with a view to the eventual phasing out of their use and replacement with clean production methods; the Member States and EC bodies should enter into the same commitments in respect of any international agreements in which they are involved as partners;

12. As an approach to sectoral problems of pollution, draw up proposals for EC legislation for at least those sectors specified in Annexes 1B and 1C of the Ministerial Declaration, together with the setting of specific timetables for the phasing out of these activities;

13. Focus more attention on the emission of dangerous substances with top priority for organic chlorine and phosphorus compounds, not least with a view to reducing the astronomically high costs of environmental pollution and damage to public health;

14. Ensure that PCBs are no longer incinerated but stored securely on a temporary basis until acceptable detoxification systems are available, and provide for rigorous monitoring and regular reports;

15. Carry out a thorough review of agricultural policy as a matter of urgency to solve the unacceptable problems of nutrients and nitrogen; nutrients regarded as less harmful, such as liquid manure surpluses, should be included in view of the very substantial volume involved;

16. Resubmit and adopt forthwith the proposal for a directive on dumping and incineration at sea ensuring that it includes a total ban on the storage of dangerous and radioactive waste on the seabed;

17. Scrap once and for all any plans for the construction of waste islands and recommends focusing on dredger spoils since dumping of spoils at sea is equivalent to waste dumping at sea which is banned by international treaties;

18. Ban the discharge of radioactive waste in the marine environment and the construction and/or expansion of nuclear facilities;

19. Declare the North Sea as a whole a special area within the meaning of the Marpol Convention;

With regard to the future

20. Comply strictly with the commitments entered into in respect of the North Sea Action Plans;

21. As far as the territory of the EC is concerned, entrust supervision of compliance with commitments to EC controllers who are independent of the national industrial interests of the Member States, pursuant to the proposals contained in the Commission's fourth Environment Action Programme;

22. Address themselves to the appropriate authorities within the Member States to ensure that the decisions of the conference are implemented as effectively and as rapidly as possible, taking into account the statutory or constitutional process of regionalization and decentralization in a number of Member States, and to avoid a situation in which the reorganization of States, which can drag on for a long time, acts as a brake on progress;

23. Draft proposals for an EEC regulation on environmental auditing which includes the following requirements:

- identifying and classifying all types of use of dangerous substances and processes,

- creating an operational plan for reducing and ultimately phasing out dangerous substances and processes and for gradually introducing clean production technology and processes instead;

draw up an appropriate timetable, with the relevant information being made freely available to the public;

II. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the countries taking part in the North Sea Conferences and all countries, including those outside the EEC, bordering the European seas mentioned in this report.