How Green is the Prodi Commission?

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 23, 2002 (ENS) - Twenty commissioners under the leadership of President Romano Prodi of Italy make up the executive branch of the European Union government - the European Commission. Today, major European environmental organizations grouped under the Green 8 umbrella issued a joint review of the Prodi Commission’s environmental policies for the first half of its mandate.

Romano Prodi of Italy is president of European Commission (Photos courtesy European Commission)

The Green 8 presented their mid-term review – including a scorecard on the performances of individual commissioners - at a press conference today in Brussels at the Dorint Hotel.

The Green 8 nongovernmental organizations are: BirdLife International, the Climate Action Network, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Friends of the Earth Europe, Friends of Nature International, Greenpeace, the European Federation for Transport and Environment, and the WWF. They represent many millions of people across Europe; the EEB alone includes 134 member organizations in 25 countries.

Scorecards for Commissioners

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom of Sweden scored high for her position on climate and support of the Kyoto Protocol, for her strict requirements for incoming countries in the current round of EU enlargement, for the protection of nature, for her chemicals policy, and on sustainable development policies.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom of Sweden speaks prior to the signature of the Natura 2000 El Teide declaration on July 12, 2002.

She did much better than President Prodi himself, who scored low for his position on sustainable development, and air quality, but scored positively for his position on genetically modified organisms.

Vice President Loyola de Palacio, who is responsible for energy and transportation, was scored low by the Green 8 for her policies on nuclear energy which she supports, on enlargement, on fisheries, agriculture, air quality, transport, and waste. She did not receive a single positive score.

Commission Successes

On fisheries, Green 8 environmental NGOs commended the Prodi Commission for its "courageous proposal for a radical reform of the common fisheries policies.

European Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler

Environmental NGOs have campaigned for years against unsustainable fishing practices, they say, and have requested measures at international level to halt and reverse the dramatic depletion of fish stocks. They said, "The Commission now offers a balanced proposal that begins to address the problem seriously."

The commission's review of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy scored high with the Green 8, because it proposes an end to "financial support for unsustainable, environmentally destructive intensive agriculture."

Commission Failures

The Green 8 environmental review rates as a failure of the Prodi Commission, "the lack of international leadership on sustainable development, especially in the run-up to the Johannesburg Summit."

It faults the Commission on waste policy, "notably its failure to address growing waste generation," and the "disregard for environmental concerns in transport policies."

The green groups slammed the proposed law known as the Directive on Environmental Liability, saying that "if adopted without substantial changes, would fail to ensure that polluters pay."

"Caving in to strong industry lobby the Commission proposed a Directive that does not foresee a strict liability system anymore, but only a fault-based liability system, allowing the option of permit-defence. This makes a mockery of the polluter pays-principle," the Green 8 wrote.

European Energy and Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio of Spain

But only eight Member States of the European Union are operating nuclear power stations and five of these have announced moratoria or phase out programs. Only Finland, one of the remaining three - Finland, UK and France, has plans for new nuclear capacity building.

"Globally, nuclear power is set to decline because of numerous accidents, public opposition and the unsolved problem of nuclear waste," the groups say. It requires high levels of investment and "is not competitive without state aid." EU subsidies for nuclear are still higher than those for alternative energy sources, they point out.

On the Fence

On the contentious issue of genetically modified organisms, the review is "mixed." The Commission has produced some "good legislation, but only under very strong public and political pressure," the Green 8 said. "In general, the influence of the agri-biotech multinationals on the Commission’s policies remains too strong."

On the new EU chemicals policy, the Prodi Commission has presented an "ambitious" program to control all chemicals and substitute for unacceptable hazardous substances, less or non-hazardous alternatives - substances, materials or processes. But the groups warn that "the real legislative proposals on this issue have been delayed due to internal conflicts and external pressure."

On nature protection and biodiversity, the Green 8 warns that, "Biodiversity is declining rapidly in the EU. The Commission's stated aim to halt biodiversity decline by 2010 is "laudable," the groups say, but it is not enough.

Under Commissioner Wallström, significant effort was made to complete the Natura 2000 network, the groups acknowledge. "After years of delay, several Member States have finally been taken to Court and structural funds suspended when no progress was made," the Green 8 writes. But, the groups say, the Sixth Environmental Action Programme "fails to provide indicators that would allow evaluation of the deterioration of biodiversity effectively."

The Green 8 faults the Prodi Commission for taking credit for work done by the previous Santer Commission, led by President Jacques Santer of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2000.

The Green 8 expresses surprise that the Prodi Commission claims responsibility for the End of Life Vehicles (ELV) law. The groups approve of this legislation because it "stresses the priority of reuse and recycling over incineration [of vehicles] and makes the producer responsible for the waste."

But the groups say that, "In fact, the ELV directive was proposed by the previous Commission; the original proposal had been adopted in 1997 and the amended proposal was adopted some months before the Prodi Commission took office."

To read the entire Green 8 mid-term review click here.