EEL News Service 2004/10, 19 May 2004

Added to the Legislation page:

* Parliament and Council Directive 2004/35/EC of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage

A much contested and potentially far-reaching piece of EC legislation aimed at preventing environmental damage by forcing industrial polluters to pay prevention and remediation costs.

Added to the Case law page:

* C-194/01 Commission v Austria, ECJ 29 April 2004

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The Court rejected Commission accusations of Austria of incorrect transposition of the European Waste Catalogue and a separate hazardous waste list.

* C-117/02 Commission v. Portugal, ECJ 29 April 2004

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The Court rejected Commission allegations that Portugal had breached the 1985 EIA Directive in relation to a planned tourism complex. The mere fact that the contested project was located in a national park was not enough proof. At the very least, the Commission should have furnished a minimum of proof of the effects that the project is likely to have on the environment.

* C-341/01 Plato Plastik Robert Frank (Carrier bags), ECJ 29 April 2004

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The Court in a preliminary ruling concluded that plastic carrier bags should be considered as packaging under EU law, and that the producer of goods carried in them, not the manufacturers’ of the bags, should be responsible for their recovery and recycling.

Added to the Dossiers page:

* European Climate Policy, by Leonardo Massai

This new dossier offers an extensive overview of the EC policy in the field of climate change. It includes links to legislation (notably the Linking directive, including its legislative history) and major policy documents and studies.

Added to Dossiers page, Environmental liability:

* Overview of Environmental Liability Directive

A description of some of the characteristics of the new Directive 2004/35/EC.

Added to the Conferences page:

* 19-22 October 2004, IFEST, Ghent, Belgium

* 17-18 September 2004, The Challenge of Implementing New Regulatory Initiatives: State of Affairs and Critical Issues of EU Climate Change Policy, Leuven, Belgium

* 10 June 2004, Development of Environmental Legislation, London, UK

* 4 June 2004, International Seminar on Water Framework Directive implementation “European Water Management between environmental and economic expectations – Best Practice and New Challenges”, Rendsberg, Germany

Added to the Who´s who page:

* Jens Hamer and Csaba Kiss

The EEL website is glad to welcome as second editor-in-chief Jens Hamer from the European Academy of European Law in Trier, Germany. Together with Wybe Douma from the T.M.C. Asser Institute he will work on enhancing the website and newsservice, and completing the network of national and dossier editors.

After linking up with partners in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia and Spain we are also glad to welcome the dr. Csaba Kiss from the Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA), who took upon himself the task of keeping the national page on Hungary up to date.

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Editors-in-Chief:

Wybe Th. Douma (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)

Jens Hamer (Academy of European Law, Trier)

News Service Editor:

Daria Ratsiborinskaya (Institute of European law, MGIMO, Moscow)

Technical realisation:

Marco van der Harst, Julien J.M. Simon

(T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)

e-mail: mailto:eelnewsservices@asser.nl