Environment Council, 16 December (Hansard, 18 December 1997)

§ Baroness Hayman

Both my right honourable friend Michael Meacher, Minister of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and my honourable friend Angela Eagle, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, represented the United Kingdom at the Environment Council on 16 December 1997.

The Council reached a common position on a regulation establishing common rules and procedures for the export of certain types of Community waste to certain non-OECD countries which will complete the regulatory regime controlling the export of non-hazardous waste to non-OECD countries.

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The Council agreed conclusions on the Community's proposed strategy to combat acid rain. Ministers supported the Strategy in principle, but noted that the costs of the Commission's proposals were excessive and called for further work to be done to establish a sounder methodology. Conclusions were also agreed on the Community's Biodiversity Strategy, calling upon the Commission to produce the strategy, which is required under the Biodiversity Strategy, by the end of January 1998.

In the discussion on the proposed directive to reduce emissions from light commercial vehicles, the Council reached a general understanding on the way forward, but the European Parliament's opinion is needed before Common Position can be reached. The Council also reached a broad measure of common understanding on the proposed Landfill Directive but again a decision on a Common Position must await the European Parliament's opinion.

The Commission reported on progress on the Water Framework Directive and on environmental indicators and green national accounting. The Commission also made presentations on proposals for a directive to reduce emissions for heavy goods vehicles, a revised directive on the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms, and a communication on Environment and Employment.

Over lunch, Ministers discussed the EU's approach to climate change in light of the outcome of the recent Kyoto conference. There was broad agreement that more work needed to be done urgently in a number of areas, including sinks, the clean development mechanism and emissions trading in the run up to the next negotiating session. This will be a priority during the UK Presidency, as will work to finalise the burden sharing among member states on the EU target and to take forward common and co-ordinated policies and measures. Brief discussions were also held on the Community mechanism for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and on Community action needed to control CO₂ emissions from cars.

After the conclusion of business, as is customary for the incoming Chair of the Council, we thanked the Luxembourg minister and his team for their hard work during their Presidency. We announced that the environment would be one of the key themes of the UK's Presidency overall and that, in the Environment Council, we would take forward work on climate change, including the proposals on a CO₂ monitoring mechanism and CO₂ from cars; continue the work on landfill, emissions from light vans, sulphur content of liquid fuels, the Solvents Directive, revision of Directives on Biotechnology and the Water Framework Directive; and start discussion of new proposals on the Air Quality Daughter Directive, a directive on emissions from heavy goods vehicles, the European Environment Agency regulation, the Zoos Recommendation and the EU Biodiversity Strategy. We would prepare the EU position on a number of international events, including the Commission on Sustainable Development, the fourth Conference of Parties to the Biodiversity Convention and the Environment for Europe Conference. Finally, we also announced that there would be a joint session 112WA of the Environment and Transport Councils on 17 June and an Informal Council on 24–26 April, again with a joint session of environment and transport ministers.