Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-17-Speech-2-312"
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".
I should like to thank the European Parliament and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety for their perseverance in drafting this report at second reading. I am particularly grateful to the rapporteur, Mrs Korhola, for her contribution to efforts to apply the Århus Convention to Community institutions.
The Commission is in a position to accept the changes in question, given that the current wording retains the obligation of the organisations in question to have environmental protection at Community level as their basic objective.
The Commission was also able to accept changes to the provisions which refer to the outcome of the internal review and the facility for non-governmental organisations to take recourse to the Court of Justice.
The Council effected the changes in question in a bid to avoid a text which might clash with the rules of the Convention concerning the right of access of individuals and groups of individuals.
The Commission, as the guardian of the Treaties, endorses the Council's intention in this case, especially given that the common position is in keeping with the Århus Convention, which allows the contracting parties to adopt criteria for public access to justice.
I hope that agreement will soon be reached on this specific proposal. We have already come a long way from the overall application of the Århus Convention and the adoption of this regulation will prove just how much we wish to apply it to the Community institutions.
It is worth noting that, following the directives on access to environmental information and public participation, this proposal for a regulation is the third legislative proposal in succession on the application of the Århus Convention, this time to the Community institutions, and Mrs Korhola has made a valuable contribution.
This regulation has been proposed in parallel to the decision to ratify the Århus Convention, which contains obligations not only for the public authorities in the Member States, but also for the Community institutions. Consequently, the provisions on this matter already in existence needed to be supplemented.
That is why the proposal covers all three parts of the Convention, namely access to environmental information, public participation and access to justice.
The Community became a contracting party to the Convention in May 2005, just before the second conference of the parties in Almaty. At that time, the first reading of the regulation had already taken place and political agreement had been achieved at Council level in view of the common position.
The common position improves and completes the initial Commission proposal from numerous points of view. It also incorporates, either literally or materially, many of the amendments which the European Parliament formulated at first reading.
To be specific, as far as access to environmental information is concerned, a new Article 6 is proposed which refers to the application of the exemptions relating to access to environmental information, as proposed in the European Parliament's amendment.
The common position also incorporates elements of the European Parliament's amendments relating to more detailed requirements for public participation in the preliminary preparation of plans and programmes relating to the environment.
As regards access to justice, the Council simplified the criteria and the procedures on the basis of which non-governmental organisations can file a request for an internal review of deeds of Community institutions. It is worth noting that the organisations in question no longer need to act at Community level in order to exercise this right."@en1
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