EU Environmental Legislation Research Articles

Accelerated farmland bird population declines in European countries after their recent EU accession

Agricultural intensification is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. In Europe, intensification progressed over the 20th century and was accelerated by instruments of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries standing outside the EU until the beginning of the 21st century employed less intensive farming and are considered one of the continent's farmland biodiversity strongholds. Their recent EU accession might be either viewed as a threat to farmland biodiversity due to the availability of funds to increase agricultural production or as an opportunity to implement conservation measures aimed to preserve biodiversity. Here we assessed these possibilities using long-term monitoring data on farmland bird populations in seven CEE countries. We tested whether mean relative abundance and population trends changed after countries' EU accession, and whether such changes also occurred in agricultural management and conservation measures. Both agricultural intensity and spending for agri-environmental and climatic schemes increased when the CEE countries joined the EU. At the same time, farmland bird populations started to decline and their relative abundance was lower after than before EU accession. In addition, increases in fertilizer application were negatively associated with annual changes in relative farmland bird population sizes, indicating a negative impact of intensive agriculture. Taken together, these results indicate that despite the great power of the EU's environmental legislation to improve the population status of species at risk, this does not apply to farmland birds. In their case, the adverse impacts of agricultural intensification most likely overrode the possible benefits of conservation measures. To secure this region as one of the continent's farmland biodiversity strongholds, policy and management actions are urgently needed.

Recent Developments in EU Environmental Policy and Legislation

Abstract This section describes the significant political initiatives and acts of legislation in the environmental field adopted in the period from September 2022 until June 2023.

Systemic Breaches of EU Environmental Law and Techniques of Judicial Engagement with Science: the Underused Potential of Infringement Proceedings

AbstractEnvironmental law has long been an area of concern in terms of correct implementation and enforcement. In this context, the Commission’s enforcement focus has been on “systemic” breaches of environmental law (that is, breaches that form part of a pattern of individual breaches that, taken together, because of their repeated or widespread nature, have a significant effect on the environment). Proving the existence of such breaches in environmental law presents a number of peculiar features, because of the scientifically–loaded questions which underlie environmental legislation. The aim of this article is to relate the established approach of the CJEU towards scientific uncertainty to the specific situation in which the Commission asserts that a breach of EU environmental law has a systemic nature. It will show that, while the CJEU has been sensitive to the systemic nature of the claims brought forward by the Commission by using some of the procedural tools at its disposal, its general reticence to engage with the substantive claims at stake might have the potential to reduce the effectiveness of the infringement proceedings as a tool to adequately pursue systemic breaches of EU environmental legislation.

Comparative features of eu and ukrainian legal mechanisms for pollutants discharge regulation

The problem of adaptation of the Ukrainian legal regulation of pollutants discharging (RPD) from point sources into surface waters to the EU environmental legislation is being studied. It is noted that the legislative limitation of the receiving of pollutants (P) into water is one of the most relevant and effective ways of ensuring water quality and protecting it from pollution. The basis for adaptation should be comparative studies of the legal mechanisms of the limitation regulation of the environmental legislation of the EU and the water legislation of Ukraine, concentrated in the sub-institutes of RPD of the complex institutes of water quality and its regulation. In the cases of integrated water resources management based on the basin principle (IWRMBP), the main elements of RPD should be included in the river basin management plans (RBMP) and reflected in the year reports. The transition to the modern RPD and its approach to the European counterpart requires a comparative study of the structure and composition of the legal mechanisms of the RPD in the environmental legislation of the EU and Ukraine. The study revealed that the European RPD is fundamentally different from the Ukrainian one in terms of goals, system structure and legal instruments, and is more thorough and detailed. A method of comparing the principles of regulation, legal definitions and regulatory norms of the RPD from five main legislative sources of European environmental law and from two main Ukrainian sources is proposed. For this purpose, a set (scale) of 18 subject-functional features of the mechanism and chain of ecological and legal influence of the RPD was used. It was determined that 51% of the 35 evaluations did not match based on the comparison. Such inconsistency of the regulatory norms of the RPD is determined in relation to the most important features of legal regulation. Conclusions were made that the implementation of the IWRMBP requires a transition to modern European legal relations regarding the RPD, appropriate structuring and detailing of certain requirements for the RBMP.

Recent Developments in EU Environmental Policy and Legislation

Abstract This section describes the significant political initiatives and acts of legislation in the environmental field adopted in the period from February 2022 until September 2022.

Modern prerequisites for forming social environmental value according to behavioristic approach

Considerable attention is paid to forming a sustainable environmentally friendly culture of ecologically safe food consumption, in particular in the context of the European Green Course on Ukraine’s ability to meet the requirements of the Association Agreement with the European Union in terms of harmonization of EU environmental legislation with domestic and requirements of this Directive. The impact of this course on the culture of consumption of environmentally friendly products and the attitude to the environment in the long run is described. The impact of military aggression by the Russian Federation on the culture of consumption and the attitude of Ukrainian consumers to their own resources in modern conditions is assessed, the existing environmental problems of the agro-sphere and the consequences facing Ukrainian agriculture in the near future are emphasized. The value-hierarchical structure of an individual according to the behavioral approach in ecologically oriented agriculture in accordance with the epistemological principle is substantiated, where the driving element of changes is a specific person at the cognitive-individual level. Emphasis is placed on the institutional support of environmental education and increase its level in the social sphere, which is the main fundamental and institutional tool for ensuring sustainable consumption of environmentally friendly products and caring attitude of members of society to their own resources and the environment as a whole. It is emphasized that the solution to environmental and food security lies in the systematization of rational and irrational behavior of the individual, which should be based not only on the principles of economic efficiency, but also in the formation of national environmental culture and consciousness, based on sustainable development. Ensuring a proper culture of consumption of environmentally friendly products in Ukraine will have a significant impact on the state of environmental and food security in the world.

Adaptation of Ukrainian legal regulation of discharge of pollutants to EU environmental legislation

The problem of adaptation of the Ukrainian legal regulation of discharges of pollutants (RDP) from point sources into surface waters to the EU environmental legislation investigates. The requirements of Ukraine’s water policy to the RDP as a way to ensure good chemical status and water quality considered. It is noted that the adaptation should be based on RDP comparative studies of legal mechanisms of limitation regulation consisting of institutes of EU environmental legislation: water services, industrial impact regulation, integrated basin management, and institutes of water legislation of Ukraine: special water use and environmental safety. It was found that the main problem of adaptation is the difference between the basic environmental and political principles of the sub-institutions of the RDP. The Ukrainian RDP is based on the outdated principle of “emission - immission” for pollutants (P), which provides the economic use of the property of assimilative capacity (AC) of water bodies in all cases of limiting regulation. European regulation is carried out according to a combined approach and is based on modern principles of “precaution” and “elimination of environmental damage primarily in its source”, and the usage of AC is allowed as an exception only for priority P in some cases. The path is determined and changes are proposed to the Ukrainian water legislation that ensure the adaptation of its RDP to the European counterpart. Fast adaptation can be done by alters to the Water Code of Ukraine (WCU), which primarily consist in changes in the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the WCU and in inclusion of European terms. It is need also to change the regulatory norms in some sections of the WCU. To specify the proposed requirements some bylaws should be altered and developed. One-half of such bylaws belongs to the powers of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The proposed changes create the completed chain of environmental and legal regulatory impact on discharging of P.

Recent Developments in EU Environmental Policy and Legislation

Abstract This section briefly describes the significant political initiatives and acts of legislation in the environmental field adopted in the period from May 2021 until February 2022.

The ‘Palm Oil Wars’ or How the EU’s ‘Inflated’ Common Commercial Policy Might Need to Prioritize Its Non-trade Values

In this article I rely on the recent ‘Palm Oil Wars’ between the EU, Malaysia, and Indonesia to illustrate how the EU’s ‘inflated’ Common Commercial Policy (CCP) is becoming increasingly difficult to manage. The CCP’s expansion in scope, the external effects of internal EU environmental legislation, the increased role of the European Parliament in the conclusion of international agreements, as well as the EU’s constitutional mandate to pursue non-trade values in its external and trade relations has increased the number of issues and players that can affect the negotiation of preferential trade agreements. As a possible solution, I propose that the EU should prioritize its non-trade values and objectives, among which one can mention the protection of human rights, the promotion of democratic values, the rule of law, sustainable development, environmental protection, and investment protection. For higher non-trade values, the EU should follow a principle-based approach, even if the risk is that no agreement will be concluded; for medium-level values, the EU should follow a more concessionary approach and accept certain trade-offs in order to keep concluding trade agreements and remain a credible international partner, whilst lower non-trade values or objectives can be excluded from the negotiations if they risk jeopardizing them. Palm Oil Wars – Common Commercial Policy – EU environmental legislation – nontrade values

Post-accession backsliding and European Union environmental policies

ABSTRACT An environmental frontrunner in the Central and Eastern European regions since the late 1990s, Hungary followed a gradual but steady approximation progress to the EU environmental legislation. Previous research established an important role of the participation of economic and societal stakeholders in the decision-making and implementation process based on EU environmental legislation in Hungary. With the victory of the FIDESZ party in the parliamentary elections of 2010, the new government started to change the ‘rules of the game’ by nationalising infrastructures and weakening market access to foreign stakeholders. Focusing on the water and waste management sectors, the article analyzes the stages that brought Hungary to the recent governments’ policy changes. We argue that these changes have departed from the environmental policy practices established during the EU accession process and represent a challenge and a potential backsliding in the implementation of the EU environmental legislation in Hungary. Such changes in policy policies need to be seen in the context of the recent transformation of the political order and of the state–market relations in Hungary.

Recent Developments in EU Environmental Policy and Legislation

Recent Developments in EU Environmental Policy and Legislation

Digitalization and AI in European Agriculture: A Strategy for Achieving Climate and Biodiversity Targets?

This article analyzes the environmental opportunities and limitations of digitalization in the agricultural sector by applying qualitative governance analysis. Agriculture is recognized as a key application area for digital technologies, including artificial intelligence. This is not least because it faces major sustainability challenges, especially with regard to meeting the climate and biodiversity targets set out in the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as the water-related objectives of EU environmental legislation. Based on an overview of the possible applications of digital technologies in agriculture, the article offers a status quo analysis of legal acts with relevance to digitalization in the EU agricultural sector. It is found that a reliable legal framework with regard to product liability and product safety, as well as data privacy, data access, and data security is important in this context. In addition, the European Common Agricultural Policy, as the most important funding instrument for digital innovations in the agricultural sector, should be designed in such a way that it links digitalization-related objectives more closely with sustainability targets. So far, the existing EU governance does not fully exploit the potentials of digitalization for environmental protection, and sight is lost of possible negative side effects such as rebound and shifting effects. Therefore, the article also offers proposals for the optimization of EU governance.

Environmental Justice and European Union Law

The contribution examines to what extent European Union environmental law has directly or indirectly contributed to environmental injustice in the EU Member States. It examines one by one the different environmental legislative acts which the EU has adopted in order to find out whether minorities have been treated or were allowed to be treated differently from the rest of the population. It concludes that the existing environmental injustice within the EU is not due to the environmental legislation that was adopted by the EU, but rather due to its application in practice. The contribution indicates ways to improve the present situation, but concludes that changes for the better are likely to take time. Keywords: EU environmental legislation, ethnic minorities, environmental discrimination, citizen rights, better application of laws, Roma people. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution − Non-Commercial − No Derivatives 4.0 International License. Suggested citation: L Kramer, ‘Environmental Justice and European Union Law’ (2020) 16 CYELP 1.

Product policies for a Circular Economy: elni 2020 event cycle “Green Deal – A way forward for EU environmental legislation?”

In 2020, elni organized an event cycle under the all-embracing question “Green Deal – A way forward for EU environmental legislation?” consisting of four events. Due to the corona pandemic all events were organized as online webinars. The third event took place on 14 October 2020 and dealt with product policies for a circular economy.

Integrating Planning and Environmental Protection: An Analysis of post-Brexit Regulatory Styles and Practitioner Attitudes in the UK

ABSTRACT Debates around the impacts of the UK’s exit from the European Union (‘Brexit’) have exposed the limited critical attention given to how planning systems intersect with environmental protection. This is an important omission, especially given deregulatory pressures on both planning and environment in many countries. In response, this paper uses documentary, interview and focus group data, to conceptualise different regulatory styles governing the environment-planning interface, and assess UK planning practitioner attitudes to EU environmental legislation and scenarios for future change. The data show practitioners largely supporting the fixed standards and robust oversight characteristic of EU environmental regulatory styles, anxious about deregulation, and interested in procedural flexibility. More fundamentally, it also reveals the compromises struck in regulatory design, and the importance of concrete development-environment challenges in constructing arguments for change. Consequently, planning occupies a pivotal position within wider debates about new environmental policy fixes, warranting more extensive professional discussion.

Environmental Reporting by the EU Member States and the Commission – Current Practices, Legislative Action and a Way Forward

Literature on environmental reporting by Member States and the Commission is scarce. Furthermore, the way in which environmental reporting is construed in EU legislation and takes place in practice in the Member States, has only recently been subject to a comprehensive review. Following the 2017 Fitness Check of environmental reporting and subsequent action plan, on which a progress report was published in June 2019, it is high time to look at the state of environmental reporting in the EU. This article looks into several provisions and practices of environmental reporting from the perspective of legal certainty, transparency and, more specifically, access to environmental information. Environmental monitoring and reporting are essential to ensure proper implementation of and compliance with EU environmental legislation. However, discrepancies in legislation and issues in reporting practices can be noted. The Commission has taken several initiatives to streamline and improve environmental reporting, the most significant example being the adoption of Regulation 2019/1010 to align the reporting obligations in the field of environmental policy. Nevertheless, it seems there is still room for improvement. The article concludes with a look into the future of environmental reporting requirements, asking the question what more can be done.

The Regulation of Water Services in the EU: A Difficult Attempt to Balance Between Environmental, Economic and Social Interests

The article aspires to delve into the question of whether the EU framework for water services can take sufficiently into account the multiple dimensions of water and regulate the competing interests in a balanced way. At first, the regulation of the three dimensions of water in International Law (environmental, social and economic) is briefly analysed. As regards the EU Legal Order, the regulation of water within the framework of the EU environmental legislation is at fist traced. Then, emphasis is placed on the classification and regulation of water services as Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI), the application of the State Aid and the Internal Market rules and the possible tensions arising with regard to the accessibility and the quality of the water services. Furthermore, the impact of Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) as an example of the new Trade Agreements on the regulation of the water services is put under the spotlight. A central conclusion is that the various aspects concerning water services are addressed in a rather comprehensive manner in the EU Regulatory Framework, although tensions continue to exist. Moreover, CETA creates a new regulatory ‘landscape’ that may ‘disrupt’ the existing delicate balance concerning the regulation in this field.

Forty Years of EU Measures to Fight Wildlife Crime

This article discusses the European Union’s measures to address wildlife crime within the EU. The first part addresses EU environmental legislation that directly or indirectly affects wildlife. This is followed by a description of the provisions concerning the enforcement of wildlife legislation and, in particular, the act to protect the environment through criminal law. In the third part, the measures are critically assessed and some possibilities are discussed to improve the fight against wildlife crime. A short concluding remarks section ends the presentation.

THEORETICAL OF BASIS OF ENSURING FUNCTIONAL TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF ECONOMY

Topicality. The transformation of the existing system of environmental management and creation of new organizational and economic forms of management becomes of particular relevance at the present stage of the development of civilization. The state system of environmental management primarily implements the objectives of environmental policy, taking into account the socio-ecological and economic interests of society and maintaining the environmental balance on the territory of the country. Implementation in the national legislation of the rules and directives of the EU environmental legislation, their adaptation to environmental policy in accordance with internal environmental realities is a modern international requirements of the EU and involves a reorientation of organization of the economic actors and the search for new forms and methods for ensuring the functional management of the processes of ecologization of the country's economy.Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is a theoretical analysis of the basic principles of functional transformation of the system of environmental management of economy and the substantiation of its priorities for the development.Research results. Analyzing the research of foreign and domestic scientists, we came to the conclusion that the transformation of the environmental management system is one of the requirements of the international system of environmental management standardization, which requires its functional expansion and systemic, methodological deepening.The functional transformation of the environmental management system has to follow international requirements and have appropriate principles of harmonization, sound legislative framework and high efficiency of environmental management and control tools.The necessity of using the process of management not as a fragmentary, spontaneous process, but as a system of purposeful, scientifically substantiated mechanisms of regularization the totality of socio-ecological and economic relations is substantiated.In this case, the main role in the mechanisms should belong to the economic forms and methods of "primary production", adapted to the process of development of new patterns and trends.The very process of economic management provides for an objective need to forecast the possible consequences of the influence of the chosen regulatory mechanisms on the resource-environmental situation, and scientific substantiation must be confirmed by the degree of achievement of the targets.Conclusion. The need for functional expansion of environmental management and the development of scientific and methodological support for environmental management of the economy is the basis for ensuring the functional transformation of the modern management system in Ukraine. Approaches to assess the effectiveness of the components of the system of environmental management of the sectoral economy that will ensure the long-term socio-ecological and economic development of the country constitute the subject and prospects for further research in this direction.

End-of-waste life: Inventory of alternative end-of-use recirculation routes of bio-based plastics in the European Union context

The bio-based products market is currently limited resulting in relatively small quantities of waste streams, viewed as contaminants of conventional waste streams. The steady growth of bio-based products however, drives the need to investigate their End-of-Use (EoU)/End-of-Life (EoL) alternatives. A critical review of the inventory of targeted valorization options for bio-based plastic waste is presented with limitations and opportunities. Impacts on the conventional waste management routes and the environment are considered. The provisions of the circular economy package, the targets and objectives set by the relevant EU environmental legislation, are used as key drivers for developing the inventory of the alternative EoU/EoL routes. Optimal alternative EoU/EoL routes are defined for the bio-based products in such a way that they are turned into valuable resources for the circular economy. This is a prerequisite to promote recirculation of bio-based by-products and waste streams along the whole chain of their production and use. The expected impacts include reduction of public health and environmental pollution problems, preservation of natural resources, reduction of GHG emissions, avoidance of landscape deterioration and land and marine littering.