EEL News Service 2008/21, 20 November 2008

Added to Case Law, ECJ

C-247/06 Commission v Germany
ECJ 06-11-2008, not yet reported
The European Court of Justice rejected the request of the European Commission to condemn Germany for infringing Article 4(1) in conjunction with Annex I, point 9, of Council Directive 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. The Commission claimed that Germany was wrong to authorise the building of a heating installation without carrying out an assessment of its impact on the environment. The ECJ ruled that all the environmental effects were observed by the analysis carried out by the TÜV Rheinland/Berlin-Brandenburg control organisation. As such, the Commission could not provide the necessary evidence of an infringement.
Sector: EIA

C-381/07 Association nationale pour la protection des eaux and rivières
ECJ 06-11-2008, not yet reported
The reference for preliminary ruling concerned the interpretation of Article 6 of Directive 2006/11/EC on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community. The Conseil d’État requested a ruling in connection with a case brought by the Association nationale pour la protection des eaux et rivières claiming misuse of power in particular with regards to decrees on nomenclatures of operations subject to authorisation and of classified facilities. The ECJ concluded that the Directive in question does not give right – once programmes to reduce water pollution have been adopted – to introduce a declaratory scheme in respect of low-polluting facilities.
Sector: Water

C-405/07 P Netherlands v Commission
ECJ 06-11-2008, not yet reported
On appeal, the ECJ decided in favour of the Netherlands and aside the decision of the Court of First Instance in Case T�/06, by which the CFI rejected the claim to annul Commission Decision 2006/372/EC, which did not allow for more stringent fine particle emission limits proposed by The Netherlands. The Court, on grounds of incomplete analysis of relevant scientific evidence, annulled the contested Commission Decision.
Sector: Air

C-473/07 Association nationale pour la protection des eaux and rivières et Association OABA
AG Opinion 06-11-2008
Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi advised the Court to interpret Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control – which also contains provisions for installations for the intensive rearing of poultry with more than 40 000 places – in a way that its scope would also include quails, partridges and pigeons. According to the Advocate General the Directive however does not give room to the parallel existence of national legislation that gives weighting to the number of animals per place according to species this is therefore inadmissible.
Sector: Nature

 
Added to Sectors, Air

* According to the WHO the EU’s efforts to reduce ozone pollution are not enough
The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report entitled “Health risks of ozone from long-range transboundary air pollution” on 11 November 2008. The report establishes that current European policies do not combat ozone pollution sufficiently as they will reduce premature mortality only by some 600 cases per year. Europe’s decreasing background ozone levels will not bring substantial improvement in light of larger global increase, notes the report.
 
 
Added to Sectors, Climate Change
 
* IEA presents World Energy Outlook 2008
The International Energy Agency (IEA) published the 2008 edition of the World Energy Outlook on 12 November 2008. The IEA first challenges the technical and political feasibility of the goal to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. According to the IEA, in order to achieve this goal, developing countries must also cut emissions in addition, a US$9.3 trillion extra global energy investment is necessary.

* China reiterates demands for emissions cutting
On 7 and 8 November 2008 on a high level climate change conference held in Beijing, the Chinese government tabled a proposal for means of technology transfer, which in the opinion of China would guarantee strong intellectual property protection. China also drew up a list of technologies it would need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and suggested that industrialised nations would aside 1% of their GDP for developing nations.

Added to Sectors, Chemicals

* MEPs vote on pesticides’ laws
On 5 November 2008 the European Parliament Environment Committee voted on two second reading reports concerning proposals to regulate the production, licensing and use of pesticides. One of them, the proposal for a Regulation concerning the authorisation of plant protection products, would up a Europe-wide common list of authorised substances, which would serve as a basis for national authorities for issuing authorisations. The second proposal concerns the ban of certain highly toxic chemicals (Proposal for a Framework Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides). Substances can be exempted under this regime however if they can be used to eliminate serious danger to plant health. Consultations with the Council will follow the plenary of the Parliament is expected to give its final vote on the proposals in December.

 
National Pages

The following national pages have been d: Greece, Franceand Finland

Notably, the following information was introduced:

Added to National Pages, France

* French industry studies methods to reduce packaging waste
A study prepared by Ademe, a French environment and energy management agency examines options to reduce packaging waste, in line with France’s recycling targets and EU directive 94/62/EC. The analysed three scenarios are a drinks packaging deposit-return system, a recycling scheme of non-reusable packaging and recycling of other packaging materials, such as plastic bags. The study however does not suggest which among these scenarios is the most beneficial.

Added to National Pages, Finland

* Finland prepares strategy on long term climate and energy goals
On 6 November 2008 the Finnish government submitted to the Parliament its “Long Term Climate and Energy Strategy”. The strategy was prepared with the aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 but also contains a brief outline of reduction programmes by 2050. Plans include replacing old fossil fuel-fired power plants by newly built nuclear reactors. The share of renewables in the overall consumption is intended to rise, in accordance with the EU’s 20% share commitment by 2020. For the promotion of energy efficiency, subsidies and other financial incentives are intended to be introduced for vehicles and in the building sector.
 
 
Added to Events

* United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol – COP14 and COP/MOP4
COP14 and COP/MOP4 will gather together governments, observers and NGOs in order to address issues related with the future commitment period (post-2012) of the Kyoto Protocol and many other different items such as mitigation and adaptation measures to fight climate change.
Location: Poznan, Poland
Date: 1-13 December 2008

* Corporate Responsibility Training 2009
This IRCA-certified, interactive course enables companies and practitioners to build expertise in key aspects of corporate responsibility such as stakeholder engagement, reporting and assurance. Delegates will also learn how to benefit from leading global standards, such as the newly revised AA1000 Assurance Standard, the GRI G3 Guidelines, and the AA1000SES.
Location: London, UK
Date: 19-24 January 2009

* World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009
The Annual Meeting integrates the top decision-makers from all sectors of global society and engages them in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Participation is by invitation only and strictly limited to the criteria and quota of each stakeholder group.
Location: Davos, Switzerland
Date: 28 January – 1 February 2009
 
 
Added to Vacancies
 
* The World Bank – Senior Energy Specialist (Energy and Climate Change)
The successful candidate will contribute to the overall lending and advisory work program of the Sustainable Development (SD) Department, and more concretely the project focusing on energy work in China is its connection to climate change. He/she will support the design, preparation and supervision of projects/programs that improve energy efficiency in the industrial, urban services, and other energy intensive sectors and support the design, preparation and supervision of renewable energy and technology improvement projects.
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Deadline: 1 December 2008

* The World Bank – Senior Energy Specialist (Energy and Climate Change)
The successful candidate will contribute to the overall lending and advisory work program of the Sustainable Development (SD) Department, and more concretely the project focusing on energy work in China is its connection to climate change. He/she will support the design, preparation and supervision of projects/programs that improve energy efficiency in the industrial, urban services, and other energy intensive sectors and support the design, preparation and supervision of renewable energy and technology improvement projects.
Location: Bejing, China
Deadline: 1 December 2008

* United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – Legal Officer, P3
The position is within the Secretariat of Stockholm Convention and will also be shared with the Secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention. The incumbent will work under the general direction of Coordinator, Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention (SSC) and handle a range of issues related to international, public, private and administrative law, to international trade and to the interpretation and application of constitutive, legislative and other instruments governing United Nations activities and operations, in consultation with UNEP Senior Legal Officers.
Deadline: 9 January 2008
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

* United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) – Programme Officer, P4
This post is located in the DEPI/ Marine and Coastal Ecosystems Branch/ Global Programme of Action (GPA) Unit. Under the day to day supervision of the Coordinator GPA unit and overall direction of the Coordinator of the Branch the incumbent will contribute to the implementation of the GPA activities with a major focus on the capacity-building and technology support to ensure that efforts of the national governments to address land-based sources of marine pollution are well integrated into relevant national development processes, including processes supported by the international community such as the Bali Strategic Plan, UN Development Assistance Frameworks, Poverty reduction strategies and One UN.
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Deadline: 9 January 2009

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Editors-in-Chief:
Wybe Th. Douma (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Jens Hamer (Court of First Instance of the European Community, Luxemburg)*
* All views expressed are entirely personal and can in no way be attributed to the CFI or ECJ

Editors:
Leonardo Massai (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
Marianna Kondas (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)

Technical realisation:
Marco van der Harst (T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague)
e-mail: eelnewsservices@asser.nl