‘Business-friendly’ green action plan set for adoption

Date: 11/01/01

By Simon Coss

EUROPEAN Commission officials say long-delayed plans for a new Union environmental action programme will be ready before the end of this month and insist the scheme will be the most "business friendly" the institution has ever produced.

Sources close to Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström say "unless a catastrophe happens" the long-awaited 'Sixth Environmental Action Programme (EAP)' will be adopted at a meeting of the full Commission on 24 January. They add that the initiative should have the business community rubbing its hands with glee.

"This is the most business-friendly environmental action plan we've ever had," said one.

Experts say the new proposals are likely to emphasize the need for cooperation between industry, green groups and national authorities when it comes to tackling major environmental problems like water pollution and waste disposal.

They also say the Commission will argue that wherever possible, environmental policy should be based on voluntary agreements among these various 'stakeholders' rather than on binding rules.

"Voluntary initiatives certainly have a key role to play," said one Commission environment official.

Aside from the emphasis on cooperation rather than coercion, the EU executive says the Sixth EAP will contain a number of innovative measures.

For example, the plan is likely to suggest initiatives designed to improve soil quality in the Union as well as moves to reduce waste and save energy.

But EU business lobby UNICE has reacted warily to the Commission's claims that the new action programme will be the answer to industry's prayers. The group complains that for the past two months officials drafting the plan have become increasingly secretive.

"When the discussions about this programme began over a year ago we were very positive and were asked regularly for our views. But recently we have heard nothing from the Commission," said one UNICE environment expert, adding that she had seen recent drafts of the action plan and did not find it to be particularly pro-business. "The chapter on collaboration with business is the same length as the one on working with citizens or non-governmental organisations."

The green lobby reacted with ill-disguised annoyance to the Commission's claim that it had drafted an industry-friendly document.

"I think the Environment Commissioner's primary objective should be to protect the environment, not protect business," argued one seasoned environmental campaigner.

Green groups are angry that the Commission seems to have all but abandoned the idea that member states should set concrete target dates for putting in place a wide a range of environmental initiatives.

European Commission officials say long-delayed plans for a new Union environmental action programme will be ready before the end of January 2001 and insist the scheme will be the most 'business friendly' the institution has ever produced.