Europe: Voluntary Agreements Supplant Legislation

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 17, 2002 (ENS) - The European Commission today proposed comprehensive rules for drawing up voluntary agreements with industry sectors across the European Union to achieve environmental goals without recourse to legislation.

The package includes a half-way proposal for some agreements that would see objectives and timetables fixed in law with businesses given freedom to decide how to meet them.

A delayed European Union strategy on dealing with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic is likely to provide the first testing ground for the new framework. Others in the climate and waste management policy areas could follow. The Commission expects up to six agreements to be concluded over the next two years.

Margot Wallstrom of Sweden is EU Environment Commissioner (Photo courtesy IISD)

It leads on from a series of Commission wide "better regulation" proposals released in June, and is also a response to longstanding European Parliament beefs over lawmakers' lack of involvement in existing accords.

The paper recognizes three types of what the Commission is calling environmental agreements: first, those based on "spontaneous commitments" from industry in areas where the European Commission has no intention to propose legislation. These are likely to result in, at most, a formal recognition by the Commission of the action taken.

The French company Maillard Roues Elastomères, which makes wheels from PVC, rubber and other chemicals, is the type of company that may be covered by a voluntary environmental agreement. (Photo courtesy MRE)

In the second and third cases two different routes could then be followed. These are dubbed self-regulation and coregulation in the jargon of last month's better regulation package.

The coregulation option is the real novelty. It is also the one that will appeal most to the Parliament and could emerge as the favored solution for PVC, particularly for recycling targets, where there is still internal Commission disagreement over how to progress.

Here, Members of the European Parliament and ministers would have full control as colegislators over targets, while industry would have a free hand in how to meet them. To prevent the agreement being used by industry as a delaying tactic, the legislation could include interim targets that, if not met, would trigger more prescriptive requirements.

Under self-regulation, the targets agreed would be set out in a non-binding European Union recommendation, possibly with accompanying legislation setting out monitoring requirements. There would be no sanctions for industry sectors failing to meet objectives, but the Commission would reserve the right to propose binding legislation if this happened.

Most existing EU agreements have followed this model - notably the 1998 deal under which car manufacturers are reducing average carbon dioxide emissions from their vehicles. The new element is that the European Parliament will now be consulted before the Commission puts pen to paper on any accord.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}