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Treaty amendment
tually adopted reflect the development of a policy according to priority objectives or are bent by necessity to those ends which may appear attainable in the light of legal security and changing constellations in the Council. Moreover, there are signs of difficulties in achieving legally binding resolutions on important issues. Such difficulties will exist even when an unambiguous juridical foundation exists: the EEC has a clear mandate for transport policy, on which the Treaty of Rome contains an entire Title ~s, but very little agreement has actually been achieved. The EEC has, in fact, been more successfully active in the field of environmental policy without an explicit mandate than in the area of transport policy. Nevertheless, the present situation in environmental policy heightens the need for continuing consensus among the member states in this area and does not allow the development of policy according to clearly identified priority objectives since the competence for a comprehensive policy does not exist. At present, work must follow the economically oriented ways of the EEC Treaty at it presently exists. In addition to the difficulties within EEC institutions, there are signs of resistance in the parliaments of member states against certain aspects of EEC policy. The German Bundesrat has repeatedly declared that the EEC lacks competence to develop an environmental protection policy, particularly in connection with the action plans, but also in connection with specific projects t6. Most recently, the UK House of LOrds Select Committee on European Legislation considered draft directives for water quality standards, toxic substances and use of pesticides, prepared by the EEC and was exceedingly critical iv. With a view to ameliorating the EEC's difficult legal situation concerning environmental policy, a recently published document proposes an amendment to the Treaty of Rome to provide a firm juridical base for Community action TM. The proposal contains essentially three elements: -
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a supplement to Article 2 of the EEC Treaty to include protection of the environment among the objectives of the European Communities. The effect of this supplement is two-fold. It fully legitimates the present use of Article 235 to justify environmental policy initiatives and it activates the
Treaty Amendment On 28 April 1977, Mr. Maigaard, Member of the European Parliament, questioned the Council why, when amending the EEC Treaty, had it on several occasions departed from the normal amendment procedure stipulated in Article 236 of the Treaty. He referred specifically to the application of Article 235 for the adoption of Regulation (EEC) No. 1172/76 of 17 May 1976 on the amended system for calculating Member States' contribution to the Community Budget. The answer stated that the Council always followed Treaty procedures when amending the Treaties. In the case of Regulation (EEC) No. 1172/ 76, the purpose was not to amend the system of calculating contributions. Instead, a new more equitable payment mechanism was being established in the context of implementing the Treaties. "As the Treaty provides no specific powers to set up such machinery", the Council noted, "it was agreed to use Article 235 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community for that purpose". SN []
entire system of the EEC Treaty in favour of environmental policy. In other words, the increasingly common practice of including environmental considerations in any EEC action becomes mandated by the Treaty. - a formulation for a new Title within the EEC Treaty devoted to environmental policy. The proposal is oriented towards EEC practice as it is at present developing. By drawing on a number of fundamental agreements on which accord has been achieved but which were given untypical juridical forms for lack of specific competence, the title also tends to provide a firm basis for the consistent further development of present practice which might be in jeopardy without such a foundation, an adaptation of the present provision of the Treaty concerning subventions tg. By regulating the circumstances under which subventions may be approved for purposes of environmental policy, the proposal again seeks to circumvent a present difficulty.
Since publication of this proposal, there has been increasing political discussion of its assumptions and purposes as well as a further development and refinement of its content. In particular, a question was recently submitted in the European Parliament asking the EEC Commission to elucidate its views on this proposal 2°. No reply has yet been made. A further question in the European Parliament concerned the specific issue of the Parliament's role in the exercise of whatever competences the Community may have in environmental policy, particularly with a view to the pending elections to the Parliament by direct and universal suffrage 21. The Commission's reply to this latter question was non-committal. It referred in particular to the process of ratification of the accord concerning direct elections which was underway in the member states at the time, deeming it inappropriate to comment under such circumstances. These proposals and initiatives have also been made the subject of a political document prepared by the President of the French National Assembly, Edgar Faure 22. Mr. Faure has advocated attributing substantive competences to the European Parliament in environmental policy a number of times 23. At a Paris news conference on 5 October 1977, Mr. Faure, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, presented, together with the Board, a summary of the Institute's activities concerning the issue of competence of the Community and the role of the Parliament. The Institute contributed to the elaboration of a number of the documents concerning this issue and has now called for the attribution of a clearly defined competence in environmentaJ
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From left to right: W. E. Burhenne, Edgar Faure, Konrad von Moltke
Photo: Fischer
Environmental Policy and Law, 3 (1977)
138
a supplement to Article 2 of the EEC Treaty to include protection of the environment among the objectives of the European Communities. The effect of this supplement is two-fold. It fully legitimates the present use of Article 235 to justify environmental policy initiatives and it activates the
Treaty Amendment On 28 April 1977, Mr. Maigaard, Member of the European Parliament, questioned the Council why, when amending the EEC Treaty, had it on several occasions departed from the normal amendment procedure stipulated in Article 236 of the Treaty. He referred specifically to the application of Article 235 for the adoption of Regulation (EEC) No. 1172/76 of 17 May 1976 on the amended system for calculating Member States' contribution to the Community Budget. The answer stated that the Council always followed Treaty procedures when amending the Treaties. In the case of Regulation (EEC) No. 1172/ 76, the purpose was not to amend the system of calculating contributions. Instead, a new more equitable payment mechanism was being established in the context of implementing the Treaties. "As the Treaty provides no specific powers to set up such machinery", the Council noted, "it was agreed to use Article 235 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community for that purpose". SN []
entire system of the EEC Treaty in favour of environmental policy. In other words, the increasingly common practice of including environmental considerations in any EEC action becomes mandated by the Treaty. - a formulation for a new Title within the EEC Treaty devoted to environmental policy. The proposal is oriented towards EEC practice as it is at present developing. By drawing on a number of fundamental agreements on which accord has been achieved but which were given untypical juridical forms for lack of specific competence, the title also tends to provide a firm basis for the consistent further development of present practice which might be in jeopardy without such a foundation, an adaptation of the present provision of the Treaty concerning subventions tg. By regulating the circumstances under which subventions may be approved for purposes of environmental policy, the proposal again seeks to circumvent a present difficulty.
Since publication of this proposal, there has been increasing political discussion of its assumptions and purposes as well as a further development and refinement of its content. In particular, a question was recently submitted in the European Parliament asking the EEC Commission to elucidate its views on this proposal 2°. No reply has yet been made. A further question in the European Parliament concerned the specific issue of the Parliament's role in the exercise of whatever competences the Community may have in environmental policy, particularly with a view to the pending elections to the Parliament by direct and universal suffrage 21. The Commission's reply to this latter question was non-committal. It referred in particular to the process of ratification of the accord concerning direct elections which was underway in the member states at the time, deeming it inappropriate to comment under such circumstances. These proposals and initiatives have also been made the subject of a political document prepared by the President of the French National Assembly, Edgar Faure 22. Mr. Faure has advocated attributing substantive competences to the European Parliament in environmental policy a number of times 23. At a Paris news conference on 5 October 1977, Mr. Faure, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, presented, together with the Board, a summary of the Institute's activities concerning the issue of competence of the Community and the role of the Parliament. The Institute contributed to the elaboration of a number of the documents concerning this issue and has now called for the attribution of a clearly defined competence in environmentaJ
-
From left to right: W. E. Burhenne, Edgar Faure, Konrad von Moltke
Photo: Fischer
Environmental Policy and Law, 3 (1977)