Vol. 420 No. 1
9 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for the Marine if measures will be taken by the EC to establish a European environment commission which will promote conservation and provide measures at regional and international level to deal with member states which pollute the marine and fishing waters.
I am not aware of any proposal to establish a European environment commission but the EC is actively involved in environmental matters. It recently issued its fifth Community action programme entitled Towards Sustainability—A European Community Programme of Policy and Action in relation to the Environment and Sustainable Development. It will become effective with the termination of the fourth action programme at the end of this year.
The fifth programme is more far-reaching than any of the earlier programmes. In the early stages Community policy and action on the environment focused mainly on acute problems within the Community. Later with the recognition that pollution did not stop at its frontiers it became necessary to intensify regional and international co-operation to combat transboundary pollution. It is now generally accepted that problems of a global nature are seriously threatening the ecological balance of our planet as a whole. To address these problems the fifth Community action programme takes on board the European Council's 1990 Dublin Declaration on the Environment which stated: "The Community must use more effectively its position of moral, economic and political authority to advance international efforts to solve global problems and to promote sustainable development and respect for the global commons." The new programme also reflects the Community's environment policy objective under the Treaty of European Union to promote measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems. The Community and its member states have a special responsibility in assisting developing countries in their efforts to achieve environmental and sustainable resource development.
The EC has full status or observer status in a number of international and regional conventions dealing with protection of the marine environment, for example, the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organisation, the Oslo and Paris Conventions covering the North East Atlantic, the Bonn Convention covering the North Sea, the Barcelona Convention covering the Mediterranean Sea and the Lisbon Agreement covering the North East Atlantic. Shortly the EC will take on membership of the Helsinki Convention covering the Baltic Sea. In this way it is in a position to ensure that environmental problems or pollution are not transferred to neighbouring states and that transboundary problems are dealt with on the basis of shared responsibility and co-operation. Most of the regional agreements contain provisions whereby measures to combat or prevent pollution of the sea must be undertaken in such a way as not to divert the problems to seas outside the area to which an agreement applies. An EC European Environment Agency which will provide reliable and objective information on the state of the environment for the citizens of Europe is being put in place.
Next month the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED, will be held in Rio de Janeiro. The basic aim of the conference is to elaborate strategies and measures to halt and reverse the effects of environmental degradation and to promote sustainable and environmentally sound development in all countries. It should, therefore, mark the transition from a model of development almost exclusively aimed at promoting economic growth towards a model wherein environmental protection and rational management of natural resources will be taken on board as integral components of development patterns.
The Community and its member states are actively participating in UNCED's preparatory process. Apart from the expected adoption of framework conventions on climate change and bio-diversity, UNCED output will include two key elements: an "Earth Charter" on Declaration of basic rights and obligations with respect to environment and development and an agenda for action, "Agenda 21", which will constitute the agreed work programme of the international community for the period beyond 1992 and into the 21st century. That work programme will include a substantial ocean, enclosed sea and coastal zone dimension. It is clear that the outcome of UNCED will deeply influence the Community's actions, policies and objectives in the years to come.
I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. The policies and objectives outlined by him will be carefully monitored by Members on this side of the House. Perhaps the Minister would confirm that the environment agency that, hopefully, will be set up at European level will have the power not only to carry out reserch but also to take action against a member state who pollutes the waters of another or other member states. I ask this question particularly in the light of concern by everybody at the discovery of radioactive vegetation on the Cumbrian coast off the Irish Sea where 80 per cent of biomass fish production takes place for Ireland and the UK. Does the Minister foresee that this agency will be able to take positive action against the UK and Sellafield regarding such pollution which endangers not just humans but also fish?
The regulation necessary to establish the European Environment Agency was agreed and adopted during the Irish Presidency. The agency will begin work as soon as the Foreign Ministers of the Community decide where their headquarters will be located. The purpose of the agency will be to provide the Community and its member states with objective, reliable and comparable information on the state of the environment for the benefit of the public and to improve policy making in relation to environmental protection. The agency will assess the quality of the environment in member states of the Community, the pressures on the environment and insensitivity in the areas of water quality, the state of soil, fauna and flora, land use, waste management, noise, hazardous chemicals, coast protection and so on. The information gathered will be uniform and comparable and will assist the Community and its member states in developing and implementing EC environment legislation. The agency will be required to publish a state of the environment report every three years.
I am disappointed that the Minister has not addressed the need for a new MARPOL Convention. He may remember during the debate here on the Marine Pollution Bill, introduced to ratify the MARPOL Convention, that there were very serious defects in the MARPOL Convention such as the total exemption of warships, even in times of peace, from the provisions of this Bill. Would the Minister agree that one of the most urgent matters that needs to be considered at EC level is the reconvening of the MARPOL Convention to consider this and other defects in that convention?
However desirable that may be, it is a separate question.
