Wallström vows to ‘name and shame’ environmental laggards

Date: 11/11/1999

By Gareth Harding

ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Margot Wallström has pledged to 'name and shame' member states which fail to meet the Union's climate change targets in a bid to force the issue of global warming to the top of Europe's policy agenda.

In an interview with European Voice, the new environment supremo acknowledged that pointing the finger at recalcitrant member states was sure to incur the wrath of ministers, but insisted that it was essential to ensure the EU took its climate commitments seriously.

“In the long run I would prefer to be more of a consultant or adviser to member states, but until then I will have to be more of a policewoman,” she said.

The former Swedish minister also made it clear that she intends to come down hard on countries which fail to comply with EU environmental laws. Calling on the Union's current members to be “role models” for those queuing up to join the club, Wallström asked: “If member states do not comply with existing rules, how can we demand this of the accession countries?”

The Commissioner warned that if governments consistently breached Union environmental laws, they risked delays in receiving billions of euro in regional aid from Brussels. She also confirmed that if national authorities proved incapable of enforcing environmental legislation, she would propose setting up a Europe-wide 'inspectorate of inspectorates'.

Wallström said the environment directorate-general's focus over the next five years would be on fine-tuning directives already in force rather than on drawing up plans for new EU laws.

However, industry chiefs who believe this will lead to a freeze in legislative activity should keep their champagne on ice, because the next few months are likely to see a flurry of activity as the Commission attempts to clear the backlog of environmental proposals on its desk.

Policy papers on how to implement the 'polluter pays' and precautionary principles are imminent, and Wallström's office is putting the finishing touches to proposals for legislation to combat noise and emissions from aircraft.

But it is the climate change issue which is likely to dominate the new Commissioner's term of office. A new strategy to be presented next year will examine the problem “greenhouse gas by greenhouse gas” and attempt to define who should do what in the fight against global warming.

Wallström believes that some form of EU-wide energy tax would help the Union meet the climate change goals it signed up to at Kyoto in 1997. However, she acknowledges that the Commission's proposal has met with “stubborn resistance” from countries such as Spain and says that “if nothing happens within a year, we will have to think of a new strategy”.

This, she added, would probably mean a group of progressive countries “going it alone”. However, she insisted that under no circumstances should it lead to an increased reliance on nuclear power. “Nuclear is not a sustainable source. Besides, our calculations show that we can meet our Kyoto goals without changing the balance between different energy sources,” she said.

Wallström believes that the integration of environmental concerns into other policy areas such as transport, energy and agriculture will also be crucial if the EU is to fulfil the promises it made at Kyoto.

Ministers are currently drawing up integration strategies to present at next month's Union summit in Helsinki, but Wallström says the quality of these “varies a lot”.

Transport ministers are praised by the Commissioner for their good work, but the Swede says she wishes agriculture and industry ministers were “a little more active in this field”.