Pollution Control in the European Community:Guide to the Ec Texts and Their Implementation by the Member States

Since the European Council's Dublin Declaration of June 1990, a high political profile has been given to the effective transposition of EU legislation into national law. The Declaration underlined the importance of providing transparency, comparability of effort and accessibility of full information to the public.

<p class=copymedium>Moreover, European unification as well as the interrelationships of environmental issues require EU citizens to have direct access to legal proceedings, which necessitates making EU legislation more easily accessible to EU citizens. Therefore, as also repeatedly demanded by the European Parliament, it is essential to have the codified texts available in a clear and comprehensive form.

<p class=copymedium>This publication seeks to fulfil this requirement. It is divided into two parts. Part I consists of a compilation of all EC pollution control texts mentioned in the title, i.e. directives, regulations, and declarations, etc., which are consolidated up to the end of 1995. It assembles materials under seven subject headings: water, air, noise, waste and harmful substances, followed by Environmental Impact Assessment and Access to Information on the Environment. The materials are reproduced in extenso, in the form of short extracts, or as simple references according to the importance of the sources at issue.

<p class=copymedium>Part II provides a guide to the implementation of EU environmental legislation by the Member States. It covers all the main directives and regulations considered in Part I. It also underlines the European Commission's findings on the monitoring of the application of EU legislation by the Member States and reports briefly on the relevant judgments of the European Court of Justice. At the present time, twelve Member States are covered. Future supplements will extend coverage to the three newest Members.