Commentary
Promoting a Greener
EUROPEAN UNION Europe's largest environmental organization is hard at work ensuring that the European Union keeps a high profile on environmental issues. MARIA BURKE
imes are changing for the jor impact on the European Brussels-based EuroCommission (EC), the European Environmental Bupean Parliament, and EEB as reau (EEB). The Eurowell. "Most of these countries pean Union (EU) is will have less developed econopreparing to accept new memmies in GDP-per-capita terms ber countries from eastern Euand old environmental probrope, and EEB—Europe's larglems," says John Hontelez, the John Hontelez est environmental organization 46-year-old Dutchman who has and one of the most powerful run the EEB for more than three environmental lobbying groups in Europe—is gear- years and is secretary-general of the organization. ing up for fresh struggles over the environmental "We fear that general progress in the EU will be hamproblems that these new member countries will pered if new countries are weak on environmental bring to the EU. policies, because as soon as they are members, they EU expansion during the next 10 years could add can vote on policies." The EEB seeks assurances that anywhere from 15 to 30 countries. It will have a ma- EU monies spent in these countries are environ-
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© 2000 American Chemical Society
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EU's governmental structure The EU's executive body is the European Commission (EC) (www. europa.int). It is overseen by the European Parliament (www. europarl.eu.int), whose members are democratically elected, and the Council of Ministers, the legislative body of the EU whose members are ministers from member governments. The European Council (www.ue.eu.int)—not to be confused with the Council of Ministers—brings together the heads of state or government of the 15 member states, directs the EU, defines general political guidelines, and coordinates and arbitrates difficult questions. The presidency of the European Council, rotates each six months. The EC, which is based in Brussels, is the biggest of the European institutions and has a staff of about 15,000. The staff functions within 36 directorates-general (DGs) and specialized services. The directors-general each report to a commissioner, who has political and operational responsibility for one or more DGs. Twenty commissioners are drawn from the 15 EU countries. The environment commissioner is Margot Wallstrom. The EC's main joh is to propose new legislation, which it does after consulting widely, but all the major decisions on laws are taken by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in a procedure called codecision. Parliament sees the proposal first, then the Council, which sends it back to the Parliament for a second reading. If the EC agrees, the Council can amend a proposal by a qualified majority. If the EC does not agree, the change requires unanimity. Parliament can reject the amended proposal or make further changes with an absolute majority. If the Council agrees with these amendments, the proposal can be adopted. If not, a three-month conciliation period is required to reach a compromise agreed on by the entire Parliament. Both bodies must agree on a text before it can be adopted. The EC's second function is to ensure that member states apply EU legislation correctly. It can institute legal proceedings against states or businesses that fail to comply with European law and bring them before the European Court of Justice. The EC is also responsible for managing the Union's annual budget and running its Structural Funds, which are used to balance economic disparities between the richer and poorer EU countries. At present, after allegations of fraud, corruption, and significant pressure from the Parliament and the public, the EC is undergoing what it calls "the most radical internal modernization" in its 40year history. All but one of its commissioners were replaced, and it has pledged to improve financial management, efficiency, and accountability, as well as overhaul management and human resources policies and balance tasks with resources. The European Council of the EU is composed of one representative at ministerial level from each state, who is empowered to commit his government to a course of action. Which ministers attend each council meeting varies according to the subject discussed. For example, environment ministers attend the Environment Council to deal with environmental policy questions. As well as legislative responsibilities, the Environment Council is responsible for coordinating general economic policies, concludes international agreements, makes the decisions necessary for defining and implementing foreign and security policy, and coordinates the activities of member states. Parliament, which is based in Strasbourg, France, has 626 representatives drawn from eight political groups across Europe. New members were elected last year to serve from 1999 to 2004. Its responsibilities are to legislate, adopt the EU's annual budget, monitor the proper use of public funds, and supervise the EC.
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mentally sensitive investments. "We are particularly concerned about the future of agriculture and transport in those countries," says Hontelez, who believes the EEB has been instrumental in influencing the accession debate. The planned enlargement of the EU is just one of many new challenges on which the EEB will focus. A major battleground will be the EC's Sixth Environmental Action Plan. Discussions about the plan are set to take place this fall and continue into next year. The EC hopes to finalize a draft by June 2001 after going through the codecision process (see box at left). The EEB fears that the EC wants to avoid a big political debate by making the draft very general, which in its opinion would leave it weak. The previous plan had environmental targets and timetables, but these tended to be only commitments to regulate a particular problem by a certain date. EEB is campaigning for the plan—which could be in effect for up to eight years—to list clear timetables and targets and explain what instruments are to be used to achieve these targets. For example, EEB suggests targets that would include a 75% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, tougher air quality standards, a 10-fold reduction in nonrenewable material use, and stabilization of traffic impacts— all within a 30-year timeframe. Other targets, to be achieved within 20 years, include a phaseout of hazardous substance releases into the environment and a ban on all pesticides that are not compatible with organic farming. EEB will also focus renewed attention on health issues, such as endocrine disrupters, genetically modified organisms, and chemicals. The latter issue is going to be a major one for the EEB, which has already started an awareness campaign with consumer organizations. "Concern over chemicals led to a European chemicals policy that is now acknowledged to be nonfunctional. We need a new policy based on the precautionary principle rather than on risk assessment," says Hontelez. Other targets for the next 5-10 years include sustainable development and introduction of instruments and provisions, such as environmental liability, the precautionary principle, and producers' responsibility, in all environmental policies.
A useful enterprise For regional organizations with limited resources, the EEB is an important connection to what's happening in Brussels. One beneficiary is the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), one of the United Kingdom's oldest environmental groups and an EEB founding member. "The EEB acts as our eyes and ears in Brussels and allows us to decide when to take a close interest in an issue. The most useful information is probably the informal gossip and other NGOs' [nongovernmental organizations'] views, which are impossible to get hold of otherwise, plus the editorial comment, which the EEB provides. Secondly, the EEB provides a mechanism for us to engage with other NGOs and lobby for change, often under an EEB banner," explains CPRE's Tony Burton. Andie Allen of Green Alliance, which works on U.K. environmental policy development, agrees, say-
ing that the benefits of membership are "being kept up-to-date with policy developments and having more of a voice at the nation-state level of EU policy development." Some of the larger environmental NGOs devote extensive resources to EU work and maintain permanent offices in Brussels, but they still maintain links with EEB. Friends of the Environment (FoE) Europe, for example, has a very close relationship. According to FoE Europe's Martin Rocholl, the two organizations m e e t regularly a n d coordinate their efforts. It's all about task-splitting, he says, noting, for example, that EEB covers water; FoE covers genetic engineering; and they swap information. "The EEB is very good at lobbying and dealing intensively with selected EU directives, whereas the FoE is more action-oriented. Over the years, EEB's output has increased, and, helped by internal working groups that concentrate on targeted areas, it has become more effective," says Rocholl.
Anatomy of an operation On a day-to-day basis, EEB (see box at right) tries to influence discussions about regulations and policies. "We have been very active in the environmental policy integration debate, making sure this issue keeps a high profile. Now everyone is talking about the need for clear targets and timetables for sustainable development and environmental policies," says Hontelez. EEB is the secretariat for the Transatlantic Environment Dialogue (TAED). Established in May 1999, TAED brings together environmental citizen groups from the EU and the United States to promote environmental protection and the integration of environmental concerns into all aspects of EU-U.S. relations. TAED seeks to influence official EU-U.S. relations, so that more can be learned from each other, and collaborative work may be fostered in individual cases.
Pushing the issues To function well, the EEB must cultivate contacts ranging from bureaucrats at the EC to government ministers and the EC president, Romano Prodi. Hontelez regards contact-building as a very important part of his job together with building coalitions. "We have a more or less regular lobbying coalition with seven other environmental organizations in Brussels. Currentiy, this coalition is lobbying for a 'greening' of me Treaty of Rome, which governs the EU," he says. According to Hontelez, the ongoing Greening the Treaty campaign, led by the EEB, is an organizational success story. The Treaty of Rome—actually three treaties that were signed in 1957 and formally set up by the EC in 1958—is constantly being renegotiated. M e m b e r s of the environmental movement believe that their interventions in the past two formal negotiations of the treaty, in 1991 (Maastricht Treaty) and 1997 (Amsterdam Treaty), helped raise environmental issues within the EU and forced them to be taken seriously. Most of a long list of demands was achieved in these two campaigns, says Hontelez. These included major-
What is the EEB? The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) is a federation of 137 environmental organizations from 24 countries across Europe. From its base in Brussels, EEB monitors environmental developments taking place within the EU's many layers of bureaucracy, including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers, and the European Council. Initially set up in 1974 and staffed by one person, EEB was conceived by several environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth UK and the Dutch Society for Nature Conservation. These organizations realized that they needed to track and influence the developments of the first European environmental policies as they emerged over the 1970s. In the early 1970s, the European Union, then known as the European Community, was gradually realizing the importance of environmental issues. Public concern was growing over issues such as pollution and increasing consumption of natural resources. When national governments began to develop environmental policies, the European Community realized that it needed to coordinate a European approach. The environment division of the European Commission, one of the youngest within the commission, was set up in the early 1970s, operating mainly as a task force until it became a fully fledged directorate at the end of the decade. It produced the first environmental action plan in 1972-1973 and the first environmental legislation, the Bird Protection Directive, which was approved in 1979. Other directives on single media such as water, air, and soil followed. The new environmental bureaucrats welcomed the EEB from the start as a way of achieving a structured liaison with the environmental movement. Until 1986, the EEB was the only environmental organization in Brussels, growing gradually as more organizations joined. In 1986, Friends of the Earth Europe set up a Brussels office, which was followed a few years later by Greenpeace, Birdlife International, and World Fund for Nature. The EEB, nevertheless, kept on growing because most organizations in Europe were without an established international umbrella. Today, it still plays an important role in the balance of power in Brussels: There are eight environmental organizations with 50 lobbyists, compared with approximately 5000 lobbyists representing industry. Last year, EEB's budget was around $0.995M, excluding money dedicated to the Transatlantic Environment Dialogue. That amount included S0.548M from the European Commission's environment directorate. The balance of EEB's income comes from members, national governments, and other sponsors. According to Hontelez, EEB is not like other environmental organizations: "EEB's only reason for existing is the EU. Our mission is to monitor all relevant developments and inform members. They get access to a constant flow of information about what is happening in Brussels." Other organizations follow only four or five selected issues throughout the year. In recent years, the information flow out of Brussels has improved dramatically. The commission's Web site http://europa.eu.int/ comm/index_en.htm can be used to find the most recently published documents. A virtual tour of the European institutions in Brussels can be taken: http://europa.eu.int/virtvis/. Does this mean EEB's significance is waning because members can get so much information directly from European institutions themselves? Not according to Hontelez: "More and more, we are analyzing and interpreting information, and looking for information that is not official yet, and this includes what other players, such as industry, are doing. We can tell people what is going on before the decisions are made."
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ity voting for environmental policies (decisions should not require u n a n i m o u s support from all m e m b e r states), a stronger role for the European Parliament, the chance for member states to go beyond EU agreedu p o n legislation without being p u n i s h e d for socalled single market reasons, environmental policy integration as a responsibility for all sectors of policy, sustainable development as an objective for the EU instead of economic growth, and a greater transparency of operations. But, says Hontelez, "As usual, the Commission has phrased some of these changes in a m b i g u o u s language, s u c h as t h e environmental guarIt m a k e s a d i f f e r e n c e antee that countries can go beyond legis[to o t h e r businesses] lation if they feel the need." if big c o m p a n i e s are For Hontelez, this seen t o be t a k i n g has b e e n a frustration. "Majority votgreen procurement ing is important because it only needs seriously. o n e c o u n t r y to b e o b s t i n a t e a n d vote against a policy for —John Hontelez, EEB environmentally friendly policies to fail to get through. A stronger role for Parliament is important because it is more sensitive to the wishes of the environmental movement. It is also more effective at working with public bodies and is better at [giving more weight to| society-based issues. The chance for member states to go beyond EU agreed-upon legislation is import a n t b e c a u s e e n v i r o n m e n t a l policies n e e d vanguards, countries that will push for a particular policy to gain political acceptance in all countries." Further, he explains, "Environmental policy integration is important because sectors were being considered from a narrow point of view. For example, the transport sector wants to increase people's mobility without thinking about the environmental c o n s e q u e n c e s of m o r e emissions; it's a supplyoriented approach. Economic growth was increasing environmental problems thanks to greater demands for space, energy, and resources. Sustainable development is all about looking at the needs of future generations and the sustainability of the system. A greater transparency of operations is needed so that all lobbyists and interested parties get access to the same information, and the public is kept aware of the processes of government. Industry and business often have the advantage as lobbyists because they have access to information that is not discussed in public." EEB is now working on the next round of negotiations for the Nice Treaty, which is to be agreed upon at end of 2000. Hontelez seeks to ensure that EEB has access to the President of the Council of Ministers (now, the only one who can put items on the agenda for treaty negotiations) and that the EEB contacts people in the European Parliament who are responsible for preparing parliament's positions. 3 9 2 A • SEPTEMBER 1, 2000 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
Hontelez is concerned that some environmental issues still require unanimous action. "The most irritating [issue] concerns decisions o n environm e n t a l t a x e s , w h i c h h a v e to b e t a k e n u n a n i mously, as they are seen as taxation rather than env i r o n m e n t policies," says Hontelez. Other issues pursued by the EEB concern strengthening the democratic nature of the EU as a tool for better environmental policies. P r o m i n e n t a m o n g these action items is a dem a n d for access to justice for environmental organizations and the public (see related story, Environ. Sci. Technol. 2000,34 (5), 113A). "We want to be able to go to the European Court [of Justice] saying that the Commission is violating its own rules when giving money from structural funds to projects clearly not in agreement with EU environmental legislation," says Hontelez, noting that "the Commission sometimes uses funds to support projects that would be unacceptable environmentally if a proper environmental impact assessment had been carried out. One example is a case in April 1998 involving construction of a power plant on the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain. Greenpeace and some small local environmental groups objected to EU funding for the project, claiming infringement of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. They brought their case against the EC to the European Court, but the court ruled that Greenpeace had "no standing". The project has since gone through.
An effective campaign? Hontelez is hopeful that they will achieve a qualified majority rather than unanimous voting on environmental taxation issues: "We have the Commission on our side. And Spain and the U.K., which are very reluctant to agree at the moment, are coming under very strong pressure." He is more pessimistic about getting support for access to justice. But do other people think that EEB's work has produced results? Rocholl, of FoE, believes that the EEB has indeed influenced EU policy. "They don't pick u p necessarily on the issues that are big in the media, which is very important. For example, they are very active on the standardization committee that issues guidelines for developing and making products," he says. Green Alliance's Andie Allen is more n o n c o m m i t t a l . "I think t h e e n v i r o n m e n t movem e n t as a whole has a good impact on EU policy. Given the complexity of EU decision-making structures, it is difficult to identify specific issues over which EEB has had an effect. It has certainly been more effective than 130 smallish environment groups in 20-odd countries would have been separately," she comments. S a t u r n i n o M u n o z G o m e z of t h e EC environment directorate is vague on whether the EEB has influenced EU policy, saying, "There are too many NGOs lobbying to distinguish a specific success. There are endless opportunities for NGOs to participate, including meetings with top management, with Commissioner Margot Wallstrom herself, and in working groups looking at issues such as air emissions limits a n d water." The directorate consults regu-
larly with 25 nongovernmental organizations, including the EEB, although the EEB is the oldest in town. "My personal perception is that it is very much targeted on trying to influence and participate in decision-making. Others are more focused on raising awareness, such as WWF, FoE. The EEB is probably the most bureaucratic and the least well-known by the general public," Hontelez says.
New directions Although EEB is proud of its history, it acknowledges that its role is changing. The big issue now is sustainable development. "We have to look at the role between the environment and economic and social development, knowing that, in the industrialized countries, overuse of natural resources is the driving force of environmental problems, and that technology and end-of-pipe approaches are very limited. We have to look at things like demand-side management and changing consumption-production patterns. We cannot promote environmental issues isolated from economic ideas; we must know how they would work out in the economy. This is a big change," says Hontelez. EEB is looking at forming coalitions, or ad hoc cooperations, with trade unions, consumers, and companies, to get its messages across. "We've found that individual firms are more keen than their trade associations to get involved." For example, in the early 1990s, EEB and Dow Chemical initiated a multistakeholder platform, European Partners for the Environment (EPE). This is an arrangement in which environmental organizations, businesses, trade unions, and local authorities can meet and discuss issues a n d find where they can work together. Hontelez believes their greatest success is just getting big business together with small stakeholders. "For example," he says, "for the past two years, the EPE has been discussing green procurement. It makes a difference [to other businesses] if big companies are seen to be taking green procurement seriously." EEB has also traditionally been interested in the external impact of EU's policies. Hontelez believes that this impact will increase because the EU is now the biggest economic player in the world and a much more important political player than the United States in areas such as sustainable development, climate change, and biodiversity. He notes that it is inevitable that EEB will participate more in international negotiations, in particular, the upcoming Rio+10 discussions, which are related to the Convention on Biodiversity.
The changing face of government As the EEB adapts to its changing role, it must also respond to changes occurring within the EC and European Parliament. The EC must start to fulfill environmental policy integration requirements, the Council's request for a sustainable development strategy, and requirements for C 0 2 reduction targets agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol. "The Commission has to organize itself in such a way that it can integrate the environment into all policies. This is a
very slow process, a n d we are looking very m u c h for leadership in this from Prodi [die Commission's president] , but, so far, we're not so sure he's going to do much," says Hontelez. The European Parliament is also changing. Env i r o n m e n t a l organizations u s e d to regard Parliam e n t as their m a i n ally in the decision-making process. But the new Parliament (new m e m b e r s started their five-year terms in 1999) is not, in their opinion, as progressive as it used to be. "We are actually quite disappointed," says Hontelez, "I think Parliament and We fear that C o u n c i l will agree g e n e r a l p r o g r e s s in more with each other than in the past. In t h e E U w i l l be the past, Parliament has tried to be as h a m p e r e d if n e w specific as possible, whereas the Council countries are w e a k and the Commission tried to avoid detailed on environmental commitments. Parliament used to act like policies. an opposition, whereby it could give opinions without having —John Hontelez, EEB to take much responsibility for their implementation so it could have pure discussions. But this is changing now as Parliament is more powerful and takes part in the codecision process in more areas. It m u s t look at consequences a n d so has become less imaginative. Parliament used to act as the unifier, a European forum, whereas the Council is an intergovernmental forum whose representatives defend national interests. Parliament is n o w looking more at national dimensions t h a n before. Another problem is that it is d o m i n a t e d by Christian Democrats (CDs), whereas governments are d o m i n a t e d by Social Democrats (SDs). CDs, in particular, are not so keen on supporting SD policies. Nevertheless, Parliament remains the most transparent a n d accessible of all bodies." Nevertheless, looking ahead, Hontelez thinks the environment will always remain high on the list of priority issues. "There will always b e a n e w p r o b lem coming up. People are aware even of abstract problems now, such as climate change. We see a fairly robust support of environmental policy from outside the environmental m o v e m e n t from c o n s u m e r organizations, trade unions, and more and more businesses. They see that these problems are not going away." Will the public get left behind? "We are now becoming more bureaucratic, and issues are more complicated," says Hontelez. "If business neglects the env i r o n m e n t , t h e n we c a n h a v e a b l a c k - a n d - w h i t e debate about principles, but if everyone agrees there is a problem, then we discuss how to solve it. Not everyone can follow the discussion." Maria Burke is a freelance science, technology, and business writer living in St. Albans, England. SEPTEMBER 1, 2000 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 3 9 3 A
