The Proposed Global Pact for the Environment and European Law

Abstract

The European Commission recently recommended the Council to authorize it to negotiate, on behalf of the Union, a Global Pact for the Environment pursuant to a Resolution of the UN General Assembly. The Preliminary Draft of such a Global pact for the Environment that was prepared by an unofficial Group of Experts is a starting point to assess the impacts such a project could have for European Environmental Law. Such impacts could be significant with respect to some of the standards proposed, such as the right to an ecologically sound environment, the duty to take care of the environment, the principle of resilience or the principle of non-regression. They could be very tangible, even with respect to the principles currently recognized by EU law, as to implementation, enforce- ment and efficiency of environmental law. This paper will consider how the Preliminary Draft can be used as a starting point for assessing the Draft's impacts upon European environmental law.