Environmental Legislation of the European Union - Essay Example

Environmental legislation of the European Union Some deliberate the European Union as having the most widespreadenvironmental laws of any transnational organization. Its environmental rule is significantly interweaved with other national and international environmental rules. The EU Environmental legislation has momentous effects on its member states. This Environmental law addresses issues like water and waste pollution, noise pollution, air quality, thinning of the ozone layer and acid rain. The institution for European Environmental Policy approximates the body of EU environmental legislation totals to over 500 Decisions, Regulations, and Directives. According to the Commission and Document, (70), environmental legislation comes into power as soon as it is printed in the approved Journal of the European Union. The main aim of this legislation is that it will set out the environmental policies or goals that are needed to be attained by the member states. Major areas of this environmental policy include the Water Framework Directive is a type of a water policy, aiming for coastal and ground waters, lakes, and rivers to be in good quality, the Habitat Directive entails the protection of natural habitats and biodiversity, and lastly the Birds Directive. The environmental legislation of the European Union should be centered on a particular agreement article or articles which are placed in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) or the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) that is denoted as its legitimate base. The legitimate or legal base recommends the legislative process and the type of directive that can be implemented. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the environmental legislation of the European Union, what it does, who it affects, and what takes for it to be implemented into a law. What does the legislation do? The main purpose of the environmental policy of the European Union is to make sure that the environment is taken care of efficiently and effectively to avoid any factors that may bring damage to the ecology. For instance, this legislation controls emissions from motor vehicles, they control the noise that comes from construction equipment’s, they control the preparation of hazardous chemicals, and also the movement of waste products. Additionally, these policies regulate activities that have health or environmental impacts; these activities range from the disposal of waste products, and operation of manufacturing plants, among others. They ensure quality protection of the environment by controlling substances that are disposed of in water, air, or soil, they control land developments, ensure resource and nature conservation, and biodiversity. Who does it affect? Conferring to the European Parliament, (50), the environmental policy of the European Union affects the member states of the union, and they are required to act as per the requirements of the policy. The directives of the environmental policy of the EU are equal to a statute in a member state domestic government. The member states should authorize the related domestic rule so as to give effect to the terms and conditions of the environmental policy of the European Union within a period that is usually fixed in a particular directive, normally two years. When environmental legislations are adopted, they give the member states a schedule for the enactment of the intended result. Sometimes, the member states may have already complied with the results, and the nation involved will be required simply to preserve its statute in place. Furthermore, typically the member states are needed to make alterations to their statutes so that the particular environmental directive can be correctly implemented. If a member state does not comply and passes the needed legislation, or if the passed law does not comply adequately with the requirements of the European Union environmental policy, the EU might perform a legal action against the associate state in the European Court of Justice. This may also occur when a member state has implemented a policy into practice by has failed to put up with its requirements in practice (Karpowicz, Hietanen, and Gryz, 130). Additionally, a company or individual who has been unpleasantly affected by the failure of a state to transpose an environmental policy can take a direct claim against the member state for compensations. This environmental legislations can be applied to set minimum European Union standards that are to be put into practice at national level, but also give free permission to the member states to use more strict national measures, provided these do not clash with the treaties in the environmental rules. For instance, the Waste Water Directive gives out the least standards for the treatment of sewage and water, however, the member states may, and frequently do apply higher standards than those least standards that are placed in the directive (Kallis and Butler, 140). Moreover when the directives of the environmental policy of the European Union are legislated into the EU statute, they can have lawful force even when they have not been legislated into the national statute. How it becomes a law A Directive of an environmental legislation is formed out of a draft that is set by the Commission after it has consulted with the National and its experts. The draft is initially given to the Parliament and the Council, which consists of appropriate ministers of associate governments who will be required to give comments and evaluation the draft, and then afterwards it is set for rejection or approval. However, there is a vital principle known as a subsidiary that is preserved in the agreements or treaties. It states that in areas that do not fall within a member states exclusive proficiency, the European Union will act simply if and as far as this aim of the projected action cannot be adequately accomplished by member states, either at the local, regional, and central level, but can relatively, by reason of effects or scale of the projected action, be better accomplished at the European Union level. The Lisbon Treaty introduced a procedure under which domestic parliaments of the member states can express their opinions on whether the legislation proposed by the European Union acts in accordance with the subsidiary principle. Depending on the percentage of the domestic parliaments that contemplate that a section of the legislation proposed infringes that principle, the commission might be needed to reconsider the legislation proposed and the European Parliament together with the Council will also be required to select sides on the issue. If the European Commission desires to uphold its draft, it should be able to defend its position by a well-structured opinion, and the well-structured from both sides are deliberated in the process of legislation. The proposal is abandoned only if 55% of the European Council members are of the belief that the suggestion is not well-suited with the subsidiarity principle. Moreover, the environmental legislations of the European Union are more of the common legislations that are usually passed by domestic governments of the member states. This is because these laws are created by these member states who have representatives on the councils; therefore, they have to make sure laws that are implemented reflect their national image. Additionally, these laws affect the member states, and they cannot be found in other sovereign institutions or governments that have priority over the European Union laws. Works cited Commission, European, and Consultation Document. “DIRECTIVE 2002/91/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 December 2002 on the Energy Performance of Buildings.” Official Journal Of The European Union (2002): 65–71. Web. European Parliament. “Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009.” Official Journal of the European Union 140.16 (2009): 16–62. Web. Kallis, Giorgos, and David Butler. “The EU Water Framework Directive: Measures and Implications.” Water Policy 3.2 (2001): 125–142. Web. Karpowicz, Jolanta, Maila Hietanen, and Krzysztof Gryz. “EU Directive, ICNIRP Guidelines and Polish Legislation on Electromagnetic Fields.” International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics : JOSE. 2006: 125–136. Print. Lelieveldt, Herman, and Sebastiaan Princen. The politics of the European Union. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Read More