I thank you very much, Vice Chairman, for this opportunity to discuss with the committee the agenda for the final Environmental Council under the Polish EU Presidency, which takes place next Monday in Brussels. One year from now, we will be in the final days of preparation for the Irish Presidency of the EU, which will provide Ireland not just with the opportunity to lead the EU environment agenda for the six-month Presidency, but also to restore our reputation in the EU and beyond. We have set a daunting standard for ourselves, given the excellent record of Irish Presidencies since we joined the EU in 1973. We want not only to match that, but also to exceed what we have achieved before. That will be a considerable effort but despite the straitened circumstances in which we find ourselves, the Government is determined to give our Presidency the necessary priority and support to ensure its success. Preparatory arrangements are currently well advanced and these will intensify in the months ahead.
The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government will have an extensive remit both at international and EU levels in the period leading up to, and during, our Presidency. Much of the effort expended in recent months has been in discussions with the main EU players, including the European Parliament. With the Parliament's powers further enhanced under the Lisbon treaty, I regard it as vital that we engage proactively with the main players in the Parliament, as I feel this will be critical in managing the Presidency's workload and bringing the various files to a successful conclusion. In recent months, I have met with Irish MEPs and with key members of the Parliament's environment committee, including rapporteurs and the leaders of political groupings on the committee. There have also been additional contacts at official level with the Commission as the Irish Presidency programme is developed. This engagement will continue and intensify over the coming months and I look forward to keeping the joint committee fully updated on developments when I brief on Environment Councils in 2012 and during the Presidency itself. Ensuring we are well prepared and ready to accept the Presidency baton this time next year is the overriding priority.
Three substantive legislative items, all of which involve progress reports, are on Monday's Council agenda. The three items under discussion are the proposed recast of the regulation on the export and import of hazardous chemicals, PIC, or prior informed consent as it is known, a proposed directive on the sulphur content of marine fuels and a proposed directive on the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous chemical substance known as Seveso III. Debates at Council on legislative matters are transmitted live on the Internet, giving an opportunity for the committee to follow the debate on these issues in full.
On the non-legislative side, the Council will be asked to adopt two sets of conclusions on the EU biodiversity strategy and on the roadmap to a resource efficient Europe which is part of an important flagship initiative on resource efficiency under the EU 2020 strategy adopted in 2010.
The Presidency will present a progress report on its work on the recast of the EU PIC regulation. This regulation implements the UN Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade. Ireland has issues with export waiver provisions in the draft regulation that have been suggested by the Polish Presidency and which we view as overly restrictive. Our concerns centre on striking the right balance between protecting human health and the environment on the one hand and, on the other, not imposing overly restrictive or anti-competitive procedural barriers to trade on EU industry, barriers that are not equally applicable to our competitors in other parts of the world.
On the proposed directive on the sulphur content of marine fuels, Ireland is supportive of the Commission's proposal, the aims of which include the alignment with International Maritime Organisation, IMO, rules on fuel standards, linkage between the stricter fuel standards in sulphur emission control areas, SECAs, those applying for passenger ships on a regular service outside of SECAs, and a strengthened monitoring, reporting and verification regime in the EU.
Most of the provisions in the Commission proposal are already provided for under Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport legislation and Ireland is broadly in agreement with the Commission's proposal. However, I will indicate to the Council that Ireland does not agree with the suggestion that SECA limits should apply in all member states' waters. This goes beyond the scope of the original Commission proposal and IMO standards. The joint committee has sought information on this proposal and to respond fully my Department has sought input from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I expect a response to the committee's request will be available in early January.
The third legislative proposal, dealing with Seveso III, is very technical legislation with several outstanding issues still to be resolved. The draft directive is intended to repeal and replace an existing directive and is necessary to deal with changes in the EU system of classification of dangerous substances to which the directive refers.
The updating also reflects the latest information on the requirements to prevent or mitigate the risk of a major accident. Ireland is supportive of the overall thrust of the proposed changes. Some outstanding issues still remain to be resolved and these mainly relate to the scope of the proposed legislation. On this point, I will be supporting the maximum ambition on the substances to be covered by the directive. We must not forget the objective of protection of the environment and human health from the consequences of major industrial accidents involving dangerous substances. We look forward to a first reading agreement on the new directive during the upcoming Danish Presidency.
The Council will also discuss draft Council conclusions on the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 and resource efficiency roadmap. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, will also be attending the Council and will deal with the biodiversity strategy conclusions.
In May, the European Commission published a communication on a new EU biodiversity strategy, entitled, Our Life Insurance, Our Natural Capital: an EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. This followed on the agreement in Nagoya in Japan the previous autumn to reinvigorate the Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD. The EU was a strong driver of the process in Nagoya and in December 2010 the Environment Council endorsed the results of the Nagoya conference and reiterated the commitment of the European Union and its 27 member states to their follow-up.
Those conclusions called on the Commission to ensure the relevant targets of the CBD strategic plan were implemented through a biodiversity strategy and to integrate the relevant targets of the plan through every ongoing policy reform process at EU level, for example, with the Common Fisheries Policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, the rural development policy and the cohesion policy. The Commission was also called on to ensure full coherence between biodiversity objectives and priorities under these policies when developing new proposals.
Ireland is broadly supportive of the Council conclusions. Many of the actions in EU strategy are mirrored in Ireland's second national biodiversity plan which the Government adopted recently and was launched by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, last month.
The second set of conclusions relates to a recently published roadmap to a resource efficient Europe. This is part of a flagship initiative on resource efficiency under the EU 2020 plan. The roadmap defines medium and long-term objectives to achieve resource efficiency and covers a broad range of areas including energy, transport, climate change, industry, biodiversity, agriculture, fisheries and sustainable consumption and production.
Ireland welcomes the roadmap which will provide focus and help us move towards a resource efficient economy where the importance of natural capital and ecosystem services is recognised. The proposed actions are based around milestones to be achieved by 2020. To achieve these milestones both the Commission and member states need to carry out several new initiatives in addition to ensuring implementation of existing policy. This needs to be well-managed and should focus on priority actions with realistic timelines underpinned by further analysis.
I welcome the resource efficiency debate at EU level as it coincides with two important initiatives I am introducing. The first is a draft framework document for sustainable development for Ireland which sets out a comprehensive set of measures to further embed sustainable development in policy-making across all sectors. This will be published for public consultation next week and will be Ireland's main contribution to the Rio+20 conference to be held in June 2012, marking the twentieth anniversary of the inaugural Earth summit held in 1992.
The second initiative will come to fruition next month when I will launch a green public procurement action plan, along with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin. It will be an important driver in advancing the green economy and the resource efficiency agendas.
The final substantive item on the agenda for Monday's Council is a post-Durban exchange of views on climate change, a topic already discussed by the committee in detail earlier this afternoon.
Twenty four items are listed as any other business, the longest I have ever seen. Papers are just filtering through on them this week. They are largely progress and information reports in the main and these are usually just noted by the Council without any discussion.
I thank the committee for the opportunity to brief it on the forthcoming Council meeting and I will be happy to come back to the committee again, as necessary, on future Council meetings.
Deputy Ciarán Lynch resumed the Chair .
