Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-29-Speech-3-163"
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"en.20020529.11.3-163"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, environmental issues are handled best when all the citizens concerned participate at the relevant level. This important principle came directly from Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, which places the citizens at the centre of environmental policy. Without access to environmental information, it is difficult for them to participate, which is why this proposal is so important.
In 1998, the European Community’s Member States signed the UN/ECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the Århus Convention. This convention is a major step forwards in terms of implementing Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration and continuing the process of openness initiated by Council Directive 90/313/EEC on the freedom of access to information on the environment.
I personally consider that it is very important that the Community ratify the convention as quickly as possible. Before this can be done, however, Community law must be adapted to the provisions of the convention, and that is also one of the main purposes of this proposal.
Thanks to the work carried out by the rapporteur – and I should here like to thank Mrs Korhola – and by the European Parliament and the Council, the proposal has been greatly improved in recent months. Most of the European Parliament’s amendments reinstate the amendments not accepted by the Commission at the first reading and designed to strengthen the Commission’s proposal. Although I can understand and respect your desire to maximise the benefit to the public from the proposal, I consider that some of the amendments place Member States under obligations which are unnecessarily heavy and exceed what is required by the Arabs Convention.
The second amendment lays down in great detail the practical provisions for providing information, while the aim of the proposed directive is to provide a framework for the Member States within which they can adapt the provisions to the circumstances in the respective countries.
We consider the Commission’s proposal to be well balanced. It covers the most important commitments under the Århus Convention, and others besides, and gives the Member States sufficient flexibility to be able to implement the legislation effectively.
The Commission can accept Amendments Nos 22, 28, 30, 32, 33, 42, 45 and 46 in their entirety. The Commission can partially accept Amendments Nos 1 part 3, 9 part 1, 27 part 3 and 48 part 2. The Commission can accept in principle Amendments Nos 9 part 2, 19 and 27 part 2 following rewording or restructuring. The remaining amendments cannot be accepted by the Commission, namely Amendments Nos 1–6, 7 part 1 and part 2, 8, 10–18, 20, 21, 23–26, 27 part 1, 29, 31, 34–41, 43, 44, 47 and 48 with the exception of part 2."@en1
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