RESOLUTION A3-0380/92

Resolution on the application of the principle of subsidiarity to environment and consumer protection policy

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community and in particular Articles 2, 8a, 100a, 130r, 130s and 130t thereof,

-having regard to Articles 13 and 25 of the Single European Act,

-having regard to the definition of subsidiarity in the European Parliament's Draft Treaty on European Union of 1984,

-having regard to the Preamble to and Article 3b of the Treaty on European Union agreed at the Maastricht Summit,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Collins and others on the application of the principle of subsidiarity to environment and consumer protection policy (B3-0908/92),

-having regard to its resolution of 22 November 1990 on the Intergovernmental Conferences in the context of the European Parliament's strategy for European UnionOJ No. C 324, 24.12.1990, p. 219, which requests the introduction of environmental policies among Community policies,

-having regard to the decision of the European Council meeting in Edinburgh of 11 and 12 December 1992 on the overall approach to the application of the subsidiarity principle,

-having regard to the decision of the 'Environment' Council meeting of 15 and 16 December 1992 on the 5th Action Programme in relation to the environment and subsidiarity,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A3-0380/92),

A.whereas the need to bring the Community closer to the citizen requires a definition of subsidiarity vis-à-vis environment and consumer protection policy as the principle by which democratic involvement is maximised in policy-making, implementation and enforcement, and by which decisions are taken at the most local level to secure the maximum protection of the consumer and the maximum protection and improvement of the environment of the Community,

B.whereas the effectiveness of the Community's environmental policies needs to be strengthened and improved because despite 20 years of activity the environment in the Community is continuing to deteriorate,

C.whereas the transboundary nature of many environmental problems, the adverse effect of widespread national differences in environmental standards on the single market, the requirement that environmental protection is integrated in all other Community policies, and the Community's duty to improve the quality of life and standard of environmental protection across the Community, require a strong Community-wide environment policy,

D.whereas Community adoption of various programmes and funding schemes at interstate, national, regional and local levels, and of programmes in respect of disadvantaged, problematic and island regions should be contingent on their including provisions regarding environmental protection and this should be verified by the Community both at the adoption stage and when the effectiveness of these programmes is being assessed,

E.noting the decisions of the European Council meeting in Edinburgh of 11 and 12 December 1992 on the criteria for the application of the subidiarity principle and the first examples of actions which will no longer be taken at Community level,

F.bearing in mind the decision of the 'Environment' Council meeting of 15 and 16 December 1992 in which it is stated that the 'acquis communautaire' in the field of environmental legislation will not be threatened but that some aspects of the policy and specific actions provided for in the 5th Action Programme on the environment will be implemented at levels other than Community level,

G.whereas repatriation of environment and consumer protection policy competence and the weakening of minimum harmonised Community-wide standards would directly undermine the single market,

H.recognising the popularity of the Community's role as environmental legislator and the need for further Community-wide initiatives to improve the environment,

I.recognising the unique institutional credentials of the Community to act authoritatively for environmental protection at the global level; recognising the increasing importance of global actions on the environment, such as the UNCED Conference at Rio, and that a weakening of the EC's Community-wide authority in environment policy would undermine both this global role and the effectiveness of actions to protect the planet to which the Community is a signatory,

J.recognising that a clear way to bring environment policy closer to the citizen is to abolish the existing obstacles to transparency and accountability that obscure the decisions and decision-making processes from the citizens whose interests they serve,

K.recognising the key importance of local empowerment to the concept of subsidiarity and noting that the prerequisite of empowerment is knowledge,

L.whereas there is widespread evidence that Member States and the Community institutions are failing to enable knowledge about the environment and consumer protection to be widely available,

M.recognising that a further prerequisite of local empowerment is democratically-elected local organisations, and that local and regional authorities have a key role in implementing the concept of subsidiarity which should not be undermined or ignored by over-centralizing Member States,

N.recognising the local citizen's right to information and right of appeal direct to the Commission when a Member State's compliance with Community environment policy is in doubt,

1.Urges that existing Community legislation relating to the environment be applied in full (with the establishment of the European Environment Agency and a Community inspectorate), be reinforced (by adding to the list of dangerous substances to be prohibited or improving water quality standards) and be extended with a view to the introduction of an environmental policy within the general framework of Community policies, as requested in its aforementioned resolution of 22 November 1990 on the Intergovernmental Conferences in the context of the European Parliament's strategy for European Union;

2.Insists, therefore, that securing the highest level of environmental and consumer protection should be the prime criterion when the Community institutions decide on the respective competence of the Community, Member States and regional and local government in future actions regarding the environment and consumer protection;

3.Insists that, where local, regional or national measures improve upon Community standards in the protection of the environment and the consumer, these should themselves be protected;

4.Requires that Community measures should move towards the establishment on a Community-wide basis of the highest level of environmental and consumer protection prevailing in any Member State;

5.Demands that the Commission undertake its current work on applying the principle of subsidiarity as transparently and openly as possible;

6.Hopes that the application of the principle of subsidiarity can develop along with the changing circumstances and urges, therefore, that the implementation of the principle of subsidiarity take place via criteria against which Community action is tested and not via restrictive lists;

7.Insists that the roles of locally and regionally elected government bodies should be given prominence in any proposed rewording of existing definitions of subsidiarity in the Treaties and be integrated in the Commission's proposals for reform in all Community actions and procedures, and that the need for the existence or creation of such elected bodies in all Member States should be stressed to a far greater extent;

8.Requests that the Commission and Council, under the present or future Presidency, protect existing environmental and consumer protection legislation from any attempt to apply a retrospective subsidiarity test; welcomes the decision of the 'Environment' Council meeting of 15 and 16 December 1992 in which it is stated that the application of the principle of subidiarity will not lead to a step backwards in Community environment policy, and shall monitor the effective implementation of this decision;

9.Welcomes the Commission's emphasis in its 5th Action Programme on the shared responsibility of the key actors of citizen, local, regional, national, public, private and voluntary organizations, as well as the EC institutions, in ensuring the success of the programme's goals;

10.Deplores the decision of the 'Environment' Council meeting of 15 and 16 December 1992 in which it is stated that some aspects of the policy and specific actions provided for in the 5th Action Programme on the environment will be implemented at levels other than Community level;

11.Demands that the Commission uphold the interests of the environmental improvement of the Community as a whole and strongly resist attempts to undermine that principle by inappropriate definitions of subsidiarity which seek merely to repatriate legislative responsibility to the nation states and which are based on narrow or nationalistic considerations;

12.Asks to be consulted when some aspects of the policy and specific actions provided for in the 5th Action Programme on the environment are revised as a result of the application of the subsidiarity principle;

13.Insists that in its consideration of the appropriate instruments for carrying forward its 5th Action Programme on the Environment the Commission recommend new measures to extend the principle, enshrined in the Environmental Impact Directive (85/337/EEC), of the local citizen's right to information and right of appeal direct to the Commission when a Member State's compliance with Community environment policy is doubted;

14.Insists that the Commission should extend the membership of the implementation and enforcement network and of the environment policy monitoring group to include local and regional authorities, and that the representatives should be elected locally rather than be appointees or nominees of the Member State;

15.Welcomes the Commission's plans to extend the list of projects for which an environmental impact statement is required of the Member States, as this directive empowers citizens at the most effective level for the protection of the local environment;

16.Insists, therefore, that this list be extended to include policies, plans and programmes and some sectoral policies and plans;

17.Requires the Commission to bring forward proposals for meetings of the Environment Council and the Committee of Experts to be open and for their minutes to be published;

18.Instructs the Commission to invite wide consultations from consumers' bodies throughout the Community and then report to this committee during 1993 on how the role of the Consumer Consultative Council can be strengthened and its constitution and functioning made more democratic;

19.Calls on the Commission to make the public complaints procedure more accessible;

20.Asks that the Commission have the power to carry out on-the-spot investigations in the case of certain serious environmental problems and violations so as to speed up the procedures for referral to the European Court of Justice;

21.Requests that the long-awaited report on the working of the environmental impact assessment directive be published immediately and that, if not included, a further report be published as soon as possible to cover the following:

-a review of the evidence from groups consulted concerning the degree to which their views have had any practical effect upon developments,

-recommendations for the strengthening of local public consultation rights and for ensuring that views gathered during consultation are actually accommodated,

-recommendations for improving the consistency and quality of statements across the Community;

22.Asks that the task force of the European Environment Agency collect and make available data on the environment at pan-European level and that, when it is brought into being, the Agency be delegated the power to investigate cases of non-compliance with Community legislation, and report to the Commission;

23.Invites the Commission to report within 6 months on the application of the principle of subsidiarity to the effective delivery of a high level of harmonized consumer protection throughout the Community which protects the right of initiative of Member States to improve upon Community standards, contains proposals for improvements in the dissemination of information, for the increased democratic involvement of consumers and their representative organizations at local, national and EC level, for policy-making, implementation and enforcement, and for the integration of consumer protection policy with other EC policies;

24.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission, and to the governments of the Member States.