Agenda Milieuraad: grondwater, uitwisseling kadastrale informatie, REACH, ggo's, kwik en oude schepen (en)

The last Environment Council under Luxembourg Presidency will take place on 24 June in Luxembourg. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas i will represent the Commission.

As usual, the Council has a long agenda which feature possible political agreements on a new groundwater directive and on the INSPIRE initiative (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Union). Ministers will hold a policy debate on the proposed REACH reform of chemicals legislation. The Council will vote on a package of proposals regarding GMOs: the lifting of safeguard clauses in 5 Member States and the authorisation of GM maize MON863.

Council conclusions are expected on a new mercury strategy and on international rules for the dismantling of end of life ships. Over lunch, ministers will discuss climate change. A joint press conference by the President, Luxembourg Environment Minister Lucien Lux, and Commissioner Dimas is foreseen during the Council.

Groundwater Directive

The Commission presented this proposal on 24 September 2003 ( IP/03/1280 ). It aims at protecting groundwater against pollution by fixing common criteria concerning quality standards. It will bring a major improvement in the quality of Europe's groundwater by bridging gaps in the existing groundwater protection regime. Following the vote of Parliament in first reading (April 2005), which supported the Commission's proposal, the Presidency now aims at reaching a political agreement. Some outstanding points remain to be decided, the main one relates to the quality standards regarding nitrates, where Ministers will have to decide how strict the Directive should be on acceptable nitrates levels in groundwater. The Commission supports the Presidency compromise to obtain a political agreement.

INSPIRE

The Commission's proposal on INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Union) from July 2004 (see IP/04/993 ) aims at creating a common `database' of geographical data which are useful for environmental policy making. The Commission's proposal aims to remove obstacles to the sharing of data by obliging public authorities to improve documentation, comply with rules ensuring that their data systems are interoperable, share their data with each other and give the public access to the data through a single internet portal.

The Presidency is aiming at reaching a political agreement. The Commission is concerned about the lack of ambition of the current Presidency text, which might not achieve the aims of removing the obstacles to data sharing and providing public access to it.

GMOs

The Council is due to vote on a package of proposals from the Commission concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Safeguard clauses

A number of Member States invoked the so-called safeguard procedure foreseen in EU GMO legislation ^[1] to ban or restrict certain GMOs on their national territory. The cases concern GM maize varieties T25 and MON810 banned in Austria, GM maize Bt176 banned in Austria, Germany and Luxembourg, the oilseed rape varieties MS1xRF1 banned in France and Topas 19/2 banned in France and Greece.

After thoroughly reviewing all cases, the Commission proposed the lifting of these measures, as EFSA had deemed them scientifically unjustified. At Committee level no qualified majority could be reached on any of the proposals, so the cases were referred to the Council.

Maize MON863

MON863 maize was originally assessed by the German authorities, who concluded that there was no evidence for risks. EFSA confirmed this assessment. Consequently the Commission proposed to authorise the placing on the European market of MON863 for import, processing and feed use. MON863 has been genetically modified for resistance to corn rootworm. The Regulatory Committee did not reach a qualified majority to produce an opinion. Consequently the proposal was referred to Council, who must now vote on it.

Both the safeguard clauses and the MON863 maize have been thoroughly evaluated under the strict procedure set out in the new regulatory framework on the release of GMOs, adopted by Council and Parliament. The Commission's proposals to lift the safeguards and approve MON863 are thus part of its duty to make sure that this legal framework is correctly and fully applied by Member States.

The Council can either adopt or reject the decisions with a qualified majority. If no qualified majority is reached, the files will come back to the Commission for final adoption.

REACH

The Commission presented its proposal for an overhaul of the regulation of chemicals at EU level in October 2003 ( IP/03/1477 ). The Council will hold a policy debate focusing on the `authorisation' part of the proposal. It will be centred around four questions: the scope of the authorisation, candidate substances for authorisation to be drawn up by the agency, the availability of suitable alternative substances or technologies and finally possible conditions for authorisation. The outcome of this debate will feed into future work on this file under UK Presidency which has the ambition to achieve a political agreement before the end of the year. Parliament's first reading is expected for the second October session.

Ship dismantling

Council conclusions are expected on the co-ordination of Member States' efforts to accelerate work in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for an enforceable international legally binding reporting system for the dismantling of ships. This subject will be discussed at the IMO environment Committee between 13 and 22 July 2005. The Commission supports the Presidency text and Commissioner Dimas calls for strong international rules in this respect.

Mercury

The Council is due to adopt conclusions based on the Commission's Mercury Strategy from January ( IP/05/114 ). The draft Conclusions support the Commission's proposals and the only outstanding point which remains to be agreed concerns the date for banning EU mercury exports to third countries. The Commission proposed 2011, while some member states support the earlier date of 2008.

LIFE+

The Presidency will present a report on the state of play on the Commission's proposal from last year ( IP/04/1152 ) on a new financial support programme for environmental policy, called LIFE+.

AOB

There are 15 `any other business' points on the agenda. See Council agenda for details: http://www.eu2005.lu/en/calendrier/2005/06/24env/index.html

^[1] Directive 2001/18 on the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment (which repealed the earlier Directive 90/220)