Environment lobby goes straight to the top

Date: 16/01/1997

By Michael Mann

ENVIRONMENTAL groups are preparing to turn up the heat on the European Commission as the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Conference draws nearer.

Representatives of the self-styled 'Green G7' will meet Commission President Jacques Santer tomorrow (17 January) to present a list of six major demands for what will be a key year in determining the future of EU environmental policy.

The meeting comes two weeks before a major hearing called by Environment Commissioner

Ritt Bjerregaard to allow non-governmental organisations to make an input into the IGC.

But Tony Long, of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), believes the initiative comes when the debate has already progressed too far. “It is two years too late. The major environmental groups submitted their first lobbying document for the IGC in May 1995, and this kind of event would have been more appropriate then,” he said.

Ralph Hallo, of Dutch lobby Stichting Natuur en Milieu, takes a more positive view. “It is an important initiative and if it does no more than remind the negotiators of the importance of the environmental agenda, it will be a major accomplishment,” he said.

Green campaigners have drawn some optimism from the draft treaty prepared by the Irish presidency for the Dublin summit, which listed four key environmental questions that remain open. But they warn that despite these, “the outlook for significant improvement in the environmental provisions of the treaty is not good”.

Negotiators must still decide whether environmental goals should be explicitly mentioned in the sections of the treaty covering specific policy areas such as agriculture and transport.

Most governments are against rewording individual treaty articles, with a majority claiming that a general provision covers lobbyists' demands adequately.

Swedish calls for a greener Common Agricultural Policy have gone largely unheeded and UK support for reform is likely to have limited impact in the current political climate.

Debate also continues over whether to extend qualified majority voting to all environmental measures. It currently does not cover town and country planning, the management of water resources and other items of a “general nature”. And there is no agreement on whether member states should be allowed to introduce more stringent national environmental laws without upsetting the operation of the single market.

Environmentalists believe the decision to try to complete the IGC by June's Amsterdam summit has encouraged negotiators to avoid controversial issues.

Fearful that the impetus may be going out of their arguments, the G7 WWF, the European Environmental Bureau, Trans-port and Environment, Birdlife, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Climate Network Europe will turn the screw with a list of uncompromising demands in their meeting with Santer.

Their main request is for a US-style 'presidential council for sustainability' to advise the Commission president on environmental policy, and a small group of Commissioners to discuss specific green issues.

In addition, they will stress the importance of 'greening' EU farm and regional policies, call for an enhanced EU role in climate protection and demand other initiatives for the next three years.