On 26 September 2003, the Commission published its response to the Council’s common position on the draft directive on Environmental Liability which is just entering second reading stage in the European Parliament.
On 18 September 2003, Council common position on the draft directive on environmental liability was formally adopted on the basis of the political agreement reached in June 2003.
The Commission considers that the Council’s common position aims to simplify the procedures and clarify the concepts necessary to the good functioning of an environmental liability regime and will ease the implementation of the directive.
The point on which the Common Position differs the most from the Commission proposal concerns the issue of ’orphan damage’, that is those cases in which no operator will remedy environmental damage.
The Commission proposal required Member States to find alternative sources of financing; the Common Position now leaves full discretion to Member States to decide to act or not.
As regards the hotly debated issue of financial security, the Council agreed that the Commission may submit proposals for mandatory financial security based on its assessment of the implementation of the directive.
The Commission is requested to produce a report on the effectiveness of the Directive in terms of actual remediation of environmental damages, on the availability at reasonable costs and on conditions of insurance.
