environmental legislation applicable to industrial gases ... - eiga

IGC DOC 108/03
• The European Parliament is an elected body that has committees, which give opinions on
the commissions proposals, and in some cases, for example environmental issues, they have
the power to veto commission proposals under the powers of co decision (Amsterdam treaty).
• The Council of Ministers is made up of Member states representatives and has a veto on
some issues such as taxation.
• The European Courts of Justice decides on points of EU law, though these normally come
via the judicial process in each member state.
4.3.4 Types of EU Legislation
There are three main types of EU legislation
• Directives are addressed to member states and the member states must implement them in
their own legislation for them to have effect. Directives set the objectives and are binding as
to the result to be achieved. Member States are thus required to interpret the Directives and
give then the force of law in their own jurisdictions. Member States can go over and above the
requirements of a Directive for reasons of enhancing environmental protection.
• Regulations are effective immediately in the member states with no implementing legislation
necessary, for example the regulation on Ozone depleting substances
• Decisions are also effective immediately, and are mostly administrative decisions, for
example the waste list.
4.3.5 Scope of legislation
Many of the regulations are written with a wide remit without an understanding about how they could
affect specialised sectors such as industrial gases. This can lead to anomalies that need to be
addressed at the appropriate point in the legislative process. The decisions on environmental issues
are taken at many different levels.
4.3.6 Local and National Legislation
The EU legislation is implemented in the National and local regulations. A timeframe is established to
implement each Directive and this means that the Directives can be implemented with possible
different interpretations and at a different time in each Member State. These regulations need to be
followed at a minimum.
4.4 Showing Compliance with new and existing legislation
4.4.1 Tracking new EU legislation
The EIGA office gets the publications from the Commission (the Official Journal) directly and also has
information from the working group experts, other trade associations (such as CEFIC, UNICE), EIGA
members and associations, publications and monitoring services. This information is passed to the
relevant working group, which decides if action is needed to produce guidance for the Members and
tracks the progress. The working group process is described in the EIGA expert’s guide (Doc
901/02).
4.4.2 Consulting on new EU legislation
Inputs into the legislation are possible at various steps in the process. The original drafting is usually
done by the Commission and contact can be made with the officials involved or via other trade
associations. However, it is sometimes difficult to identify how the more general framework legislation
will be interpreted.
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