EU Environmental Research Articles

Non-governmental Enforcement of EU Environmental Law: A Stakeholder Action for Wolf Protection in Finland

In a recent decision, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) sided with a small regional Finnish nature protection organization, Tapiola, interpreting EU law to require an end to wolf hunting in Finland. Much of the hunting of wolves and other large carnivores throughout the EU will also be impacted by this decision. Through this case, local stakeholders were able to utilize EU law to access national courts as well as the EU courts, to bring about national compliance with EU species protection law. This article analyzes the process of using law as a tool for environmental protection in the EU, and the challenges and opportunities therein. It also illuminates the different roles and outcomes for stakeholders in pursuing national compliance with EU law in direct actions and references for preliminary rulings.

Dynamics of Biofuel Prices on the European Market: Impact of the EU Environmental Policy on the Resources Markets

This paper aims at explaining the major drivers of bio-diesel market prices by examining agricultural resource prices and gas-oil prices for automotive fuels in the context of the EU environmental policy. The EU policy has enhanced bio-diesel production since 2006. Bio-diesel prices are impacted by the EU policy as well as rapeseed and oil prices which have fluctuated a lot over the last decade. An econometric analysis was performed using monthly data from November 2006 to January 2016. However, tests for structural breaks show several changes in price behavior. This leads us to estimate a regime-switching model which reveals two main regimes for the bio-diesel price pattern. When oil prices are high, bio-diesel, rapeseed and diesel oil prices are related, mainly driven by oil prices. When oil prices are low, bio-diesel prices are mostly related to rapeseed prices according to EU regulations requiring the blending of bio-diesel and gas-oil.

Significant EU Environmental Cases: 2019

Significant EU Environmental Cases: 2019 Richard Moules Richard Moules Barrister, Landmark Chambers (RMoules@landmarkchambers.co.uk). Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Environmental Law, Volume 32, Issue 1, March 2020, Pages 161–172, https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqaa002 Published: 16 April 2020

Responsive withdrawal? The politics of EU agenda-setting

ABSTRACT This contribution asks whether and why the newly political environment of EU law-making impacts on the European Commission's choice (not) to announce the withdrawal of legislative proposals. We argue that the Commission uses ‘responsive withdrawal’ in response to bottom-up pressure, so as to signal self-restraint or policy-determination to different audiences. Bottom-up pressures are driven by (1) the national contestation of ‘Europe’; (2) visible controversy about optimal (crisis) governance; and (3) the domestic salience of EU legislation. Our hypotheses are tested on a new dataset of all codecision files concluded, withdrawn, rejected or ongoing between 2006 and 2018. We show that the Commission reacts to bottom-up pressure by either politicising or depoliticising the EU's legislative agenda: ‘withdrawal announcements’ are more likely when Euroscepticism is high and when legislation touches core state powers, but less likely when legislation is domestically salient. We also demonstrate the continued importance of cyclical and technical reasons. Our analysis complements extant explanations of withdrawal as the upshot of functional factors or of uncertainty, and contributes to the nascent debate about whether, why and how supranational actors respond when the systems in which they operate – and the policies they produce – come under attack.

The Fate of EU Environmental and Investment Law after the Achmea Decision

In the landmark Slowakische Republik v. Achmea BV judgment, the ecj arguably took a resolute stance against the compatibility of International Investment Agreements between EU Member States and the inherent functioning of EU’s legal order. However, the issue as to whether the foreign investment protection regime is at odds with the sound application of EU law is far from being settled. Furthermore, the international investment protection regime as interpreted by investment tribunals may hamper EU Member States’ regulatory space, especially in the implementation of ambitious environmental and climate policies. The recent surge of litigation before international investment tribunals triggered by retrospective changes to supporting schemes for renewable energy sources and the phase-out of nuclear power plants in some European Member States is a telling example. The purpose of this article thus is to analyse the avenues currently available to ensure consistency between EU’s environmental and climate policies as implemented by EU Member States and the investment protection regime as applied by investment tribunals in the wake of the Achmea decision, with a view to devising a benchmark to prevent and avoid, rather than foster, policy conflicts.

Explaining the Power and Limitations of Business Lobbying in EU Environmental and Energy Politics:

Explaining the Power and Limitations of Business Lobbying in EU Environmental and Energy Politics:

Applicability of the EU State Aid and Environmental Rules in the Nuclear Energy Sector · Case C‑594/18 P Republic of Austria v Commission ('Hinkley Point')· Annotation by Alicja Sikora

In its judgment of 22 September 2020 in Case C-594/18 P Austria v Commission (the Hinkley Point judgment), the Court of Justice addressed a number of issues pertaining to the applicability of the EU State aid and environmental rules to the nuclear energy projects under the Euratom Treaty. Although it is not strictly speaking revolutionary for the State aid regime, the Hinkley Point judgment significantly contributes to the wider development of Union law. First, it brings further clarity regarding the links between the Euratom Treaty and the other Treaties on which the Union is founded. Secondly, it addresses a long-standing issue of relationship between the environmental protection and the objective of safeguarding trade and competition within the internal market, even though without bringing a clear-cut definitive answer to all related questions.

Paris Anlaşmasına Giden Süreçte AB İklim Değişikliği ve Çevre Politikaları

Paris Anlaşmasına Giden Süreçte AB İklim Değişikliği ve Çevre Politikaları

The European Green Deal and State Aid:

The European Green Deal is the prelude and the foundation of a daunting, but necessary, environmental-centric industrial revolution. EU legislation has obviously dealt with environmental policies in the past, but the European Green Deal is a far-reaching project that will require unprecedented investments. The transition envisioned in the European Green Deal will also require amendments to a wide variety of existing EU legislation and policies, including in the field of State aid. The Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy (EEAG), in force until the end of 2021, are the legal framework in force to assess environmental State aid. This raises the question whether these Guidelines are a suitable instrument to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal. This paper is the first of a series that will discuss the interplay between existing State aid rules and policy on the one hand and the European Green Deal on the other. It will provide a broader introduction to the European Green Deal and its envisaged means of financing and will discuss the application of the incentive effect to the State aid assessment of national support measures to achieve objectives of the European Green Deal. Keywords: EU Green Deal, Environmental and Energy Guidelines, incentive effect, environmental targets, financing

Delineating the influence of picolinic acid on Eu(iii) sorption by γ-alumina.

The present study aims at understanding the sorption mechanism of Eu(iii) by γ-alumina in the presence of picolinic acid (PA), a decontaminating agent used in the nuclear industry, through batch sorption studies, spectroscopy and surface complexation modeling. PA is weakly sorbed by γ-alumina, with the sorption increasing with pH up to 4.5 and decreasing with further increase in pH. Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) measurements indicate that PA forms an inner sphere surface complex on γ-alumina. The presence of PA does not affect Eu(iii) sorption by γ-alumina at low [Eu(iii)], while it drastically reduces Eu(iii) sorption at high [Eu(iii)]. Similar Eu(iii) sorption profiles with different addition sequences of Eu(iii) and PA suggest identical Eu(iii) surface species for Eu(iii) sorption on γ-alumina in the presence of PA which has been validated by time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (TRFS). TRFS measurements of Eu(iii) sorbed on γ-alumina in the absence (binary systems) and presence of PA (ternary systems) exhibited two components 1 & 2. The lifetime value of component 1 in ternary systems is enhanced compared to that in binary systems signifying the formation of new surface species containing Eu(iii), PA and the γ-alumina surface whereas the similarity of component 2 in both the binary and ternary systems reveals an almost identical coordination environment of Eu(iii) in the two types of system. Using the spectroscopic information obtained from TRFS, Eu(iii) sorption, at high [Eu(iii)], in ternary systems has been successfully modeled by considering Eu(iii) bridged PA surface species at both low and high affinity sites of γ-alumina. At low [Eu(iii)] both PA and Eu(iii) bridged ternary surface complexes only at high affinity sites of γ-alumina could describe the Eu(iii) sorption adequately.

Effect of the Phase Composition and Local Crystal Structure on the Transport Properties of the ZrO2–Y2O3 and ZrO2–Gd2O3 Solid Solutions

The results of investigating the crystal structure, ionic conductivity, and local structure of the (ZrO2)1 –x(Gd2O3)x and (ZrO2)1 –x(Y2O3)x (x = 0.04, 0.08, 0.10, 0.12, and 0.14) solid solutions are reported. The crystals are grown by directional crystallization of the melt in a cold container. The phase composition of the crystals is investigated by X-ray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy. The transport characteristics are studied by impedance spectroscopy in the temperature range of 400 to 900°C. The local crystal structure is examined by optical spectroscopy. Eu3+ ions were used as a spectroscopic probe. The study of the local structure of the ZrO2–Y2O3 and ZrO2–Gd2O3 solid solutions revealed the features in the formation of optical centers, which reflect the character of localization of oxygen vacancies in the crystal lattice depending on the stabilizing oxide concentration. It is established that the local crystal environment of Eu3+ ions in the (ZrO2)1 –x(Y2O3)x and (ZrO2)1 –x(Gd2O3)x solid solutions is determined by the stabilizing oxide concentration and is practically independent of the stabilizing oxide type (Y2O3 or Gd2O3). The maximum conductivity at a temperature of 900°C is observed in the crystals with 10 mol % of Gd2O3 and 8 mol % of Y2O3. These compositions correspond to the t'' phase and are close to the interface between the cubic and tetragonal phase regions. It is found that in the ZrO2–Y2O3 system the highly symmetric phase is stabilized at a lower stabilizing oxide concentration than in the ZrO2–Gd2O3 system. The analysis of the data obtained makes it possible to conclude that, in this composition range, the concentration dependence of the ionic conductivity is mainly affected by the phase composition rather than the character of the localization of oxygen vacancies in the crystal lattice.

Dynamic Linkages among Economic Development, Energy Consumption, Environment and Health Sustainable in EU and Non-EU Countries.

There is a close and important relationship between environmental pollution and public health, and environmental pollution has an important impact on the public health. This study employed the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network data envelopment analysis (TMDN-DEA) model to explore the environment pollution effects from energy consumption on the mortality of children and adult, tuberculosis rate, survival rate and health expenditure efficiencies in 28 EU countries and 53 non-EU countries from 2010 to 2014. We calculated the overall efficiency scores and the technology gap ratios of each EU and non-EU countries and the efficiencies of input and output variables in the production and health stage. The average overall efficiencies each year in EU countries are higher than in the non-EU countries. But EU countries have higher energy efficiency than non-EU countries, and non-EU countries have higher health efficiency than EU countries. The health expenditure efficiencies in the EU countries are obviously lower than those in non-EU countries. The renewable energy efficiencies are obviously higher than the non-renewable energy efficiencies; PM2.5 efficiencies are obviously higher than the CO2 efficiencies and the children’s mortality rate efficiencies are higher than the adult’s mortality rate efficiencies for EU countries and non-EU countries. The government management in the EU and non-EU countries should be strengthened to reduce the air pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions and raise energy transformation to the clean energy in renewable energy and improve health efficiencies in medical and health care field.

Legislation of the European Union Related to Municipal Waste and its Reflection in the Association Agreement with Ukraine

Since signing the Association Agreement with the European Union on June 27, 2014, Ukraine has continued process of adaptation of its legislation in the field of waste management to European standards. According to Annex XXX to Chapter 6 of the Association Agreement, Ukraine should implement the following three Directives: Directive 2008/98/EC of the European parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives; Council Directive 1999/31EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste and Directive 2006/21/EC of the European parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the management of waste from extractive industries. The benefits for Ukraine after signing the Association Agreement are unconditional, but more important is to implement its provisions. Taking part in the joint Ukraine-Czech Republicresearch and development project «EU Environmental Policy on Solid Domestic Waste Management and its Implementation in Ukraine and the Czech Republic» we have studied EU waste law, its principles and standards. The state of adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to the requirements of the European Union in the field of waste management has been investigated and some gaps in Ukrainian legislation have been found. Keywords: EU waste policy, EU law, waste management, municipal waste, adaptation of legislation to EU law

Принципи управління відходами та ресурсами у країнах ЄС

Метою статті є дослідження європейської системи управління відходами та ресурсами в контексті наближення національного законодавства до acquis communautaire, виходячи з відповідних загальних і спеціальних принципів.
 Наукова новизна зумовлена тим, що в умовах європейської інтеграції для України актуальним є зміна законодавства та практик у сфері поводження з відходами, модернізація відповідної інфраструктури та підвищення екологічної свідомості громадян. Узагальнено позитивний досвід управління відходами та ресурсами у країнах ЄС, досліджено зміст Директив ЄС у сфері поводження з відходами та ресурсами, наукові публікації з цієї тематики, відзначено, що більшість стандартів ЄС у цій сфері формулюються як принципи системи управління відходами та ресурсами. З’ясовано поняття і зміст категорії «принципи управління відходами», запропоновано їх класифікацію.
 Висновки. На підставі дефініцій «принципи права» та «принципи екологічної політики ЄС» визначено принципи управління відходами та ресурсами як основоположні ідеї та керівні положення, на підставі яких функціонує система управління відходами та ресурсами, вони визначають її загальну спрямованість, мету, цілі та структуру, а також встановлюють методи такого управління.
 Європейська система управління відходами та ресурсами базується на таких загальних принципах екологічної політики ЄС, як принцип сталого розвитку, принцип забруднювач повинен платити, принцип запровадження найкращих доступних технологій, принцип проведення превентивних заходів, принцип стимулювання екологічно чистих технологій та продуктів, принцип єдиної термінології та класифікації, принцип планування та звітності.
 До спеціальних принципів управління відходами та ресурсами можна віднести такі: принцип ієрархії поводження з відходами, який передбачає п’ятиступеневу систему пріоритетів у поводженні з відходами, починаючи з найбажаніших варіантів та закінчуючи небажаними варіантами, що можуть застосовуватися лише після попередніх: запобігання утворенню відходів; підготовка до повторного використання; переробка відходів; рекуперація енергії; ліквідація. Принцип самодостатності – означає створення кожною державою-членом ЄС відповідної інфраструктури, достатньої для утилізації і розміщення всіх відходів, що в ній генеруються. Принцип наближеності – полягає у тому, що збирання, утилізація та ліквідація відходів має здійснюватися якомога ближче до джерела їх утворення. Принцип розширеної відповідальності виробника (фізична чи юридична особа, яка за родом діяльності розвиває, оброблює, має справу, продає чи імпортує товари) – зобов’язання виробника забезпечувати організацію збирання, переробку та утилізацію своєї продукції після її використання, а також проведення інформаційних заходів для споживачів тощо.

Comparing Options for Deriving Chemical Ecotoxicity Hazard Values for the European Union Environmental Footprint, Part II.

ABSTRACTUsing the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) ecotoxicity data, this paper compares 3 different approaches to calculate final substance toxicity hazard values using the USEtox approach (chronic EC50 + acute EC50/2), using only acute EC50 equivalent data (EC50eq), and using only chronic no observed effect concentration equivalent (NOECeq) data. About 4008, 4853, and 5560 substance hazard values could be calculated for the USEtox model, acute only, and chronic only approaches, respectively. The USEtox model provides hazard values similar to the ones based on acute EC50 data only. Although there is a large amount of variability in the ratios, the data support acute EC50eq to chronic NOECeq ratios (calculated as geometric mean) of 10.64, 10.90, and 4.21 for fish, crustaceans, and algae respectively. Comparison of the calculated hazard values with the criteria used by the EU chemical Classification, Labelling, and Packaging regulation (CLP) shows the USEtox model underestimates the number of compounds categorized as very toxic to aquatic life and/or having long‐lasting effects. In contrast, use of the chronic NOEC data shows a good agreement with CLP. It is therefore proposed that chronic NOECeq are used to derive substance hazard values to be used in the EU Environmental Footprint. Due to poor data availability for some chemicals, the uncertainty of the final hazard values is expected to be high. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:796–807. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Using REACH for the EU Environmental Footprint: Building a Usable Ecotoxicity Database, Part I.

ABSTRACTThe European Union Environmental Footprint (EU‐EF) is a harmonized method to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organizations. Among 16 different impact categories included in the EU‐EF, 1 focuses on the impact of substances on freshwater ecosystems and requires the use of toxicity data. This paper evaluates the use of the aquatic toxicity data submitted to the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. It presents an automated computerized approach for selecting substance ecotoxicity values, building on a set of quality and reliability criteria to extract the most relevant data points for calculating the substance specific hazard values. A selected set of criteria led to the exclusion of approximately 82% of the original REACH ecotoxicological data available as of May 2015 due to incomplete initial encoding of the data by the REACH registrant, missing information such as duration of exposure, endpoint measured, species tested, and imprecise toxicity values (i.e., reported with greater than or less than signs). From an initial set of 305 068 ecotoxicity data records available in the REACH database, the final usable database contains 54 353 toxicity records (29 421 characterized as acute and 24 941 as chronic) covering 9 taxonomic groups, with algae, crustaceans, and fish representing 93% of the data. This data set is valuable for assessing the environmental toxicity of the substance contained whether through traditional substance risk assessment, product toxicity labeling, life cycle assessment (LCA) or environmental impact assessment approaches. However, the resulting loss of approximately 82% of the data suggests that changes in procedures used to generate, report, and document the data within REACH are needed to improve data utility for the various assessment approaches. The rules used to select the data to be used are the primary focus of this article. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:783–795. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

The Contribution of the Case Law of the cjeu to the Judicial Enforcement of EU Environmental Law in the UK

The enforcement of EU environmental law is of particular relevance because EU law provides most of the framework of environmental law in the Member States, including the UK. Supervision by the EU Commission ensures a certain general standard of compliance, especially as regards transposition of directives and conformity of transposing legislation. The practice of domestic courts is an essential complement to Commission action. In this respect the Luxembourg jurisprudence has in particular strengthened the judicial powers of UK courts and provided some protection against excessive costs of judicial proceedings. After brexit much of this contribution could continue to be relevant, in particular if the agreement that was negotiated with the EU should be ratified.

Governmentality in EU external trade and environment policy: between rights and market

While the European Union's external trade policy has always engaged with such values as development, human rights and environmental sustainability, this rhetoric has been significantly stepped up over the last years. The unprecedented politicization of major trade deals and accusations that the EU ignores normative concerns in practice have led the European Commission to declare in 2015 that ‘trade policy … will not only project our interests, but also our values’. A growing number of scholarly contributions address the EU's response to contestation over trade policy and its attempts to increase legitimacy. Governmentality in EU external trade and environment policy contributes to this debate from a critical perspective. Although it is grounded in transnational legal studies, Jessica Lawrence's work reaches beyond the mainstream of her discipline, providing an insightful analysis of the EU's external policy based on Michel Foucault's idea of governmentality. It is this interdisciplinary approach that gives the book its richness.

Competitiveness and Its Impact on Sustainability, Business Environment, and Human Development of EU (28) Countries in terms of Global Multi-Criteria Indices

In this paper, the following research problem was addressed: Is there a significant economic impact of multidimensional specified competitiveness within the EU (28) countries on the competitive business environment, human development, and sustainable growth? Based on the mentioned research problem, we formulated the aim of paper: To detect the significant interrelations among the assessment of global competitiveness, business environment as well as human development in the EU (28) countries for the period of 2006–2017. To address these problems, the methodology of global multi-criteria indices, namely the global competitiveness index (GCI), doing business index (DBI), and human development index (HDI), as well as panel analysis and non-linear regression analyses with ANOVA, were applied. The panel analysis results suggest that there is a direct linear relationship between the GCI and HDI. Moreover, the impact of the DBI on the change in the GCI score was not confirmed. We identified the main areas of countries’ interest, and important economic and statistical significant relations of competitiveness by creating three models: The GD model (constructed by GCI and DBI scores), GH model (GCI and HDI scores), and GDH model (GCI, DBI and HDI scores). Based on the results, all interrelations were confirmed. However, the highest extent of variability for the explanation of the selected data was recorded in the case of the GDH model (87.12%). We detected the impact of the business environment and human resources as competitive advantages on global macroeconomic competitiveness. As the business sector in EU (28) countries is represented mainly by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enterprise activities play a key role in the process of sustainable competitive economic development. Moreover, human resources are considered to be another important driver of the internationalization of European SMEs.

The Court of Justice of the European Union as a Transnational Actor through Judicial Review of the Territorial Scope of EU Environmental Law

AbstractWhen courts are faced with questions regarding the territorial scope of internal legislation, they are required to engage with controversial issues pertaining to the permissible boundaries of regulatory reach, which go beyond traditional conceptions of state sovereignty and non-intervention on which the functioning of courts is normally based. This Article examines the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) in reviewing the legality and interpretation of the extraterritorial reach of EU environmental law, including animal welfare. It assesses the extent to which judicial review by the CJEU serves as a transnational mechanism for addressing legitimacy concerns raised by the unilateral exercise of EU regulatory power beyond EU borders.