ENVIRONMENT IN BRIEF
E E B ’ S M E MB E R N EW SL ET T E R
8/20
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1/2011
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Contents
INTERNAL NEWS
REIMBURSEMENT REQUESTS 2010 - deadline 7 February!!
MEMBERS SECTION
EU POLICIES
NEWS FROM EEB’ S EU POLICY UNIT
 Air
- Commission hazy on future air legislation
- European City Ranking Project
 Energy
 Seveso
NEWS FROM OTHER EEB UNITS
 Zero Mercury Campaign
UPCOMING EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS RELEASES
WEBSITES
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INTERNAL NEWS
Travel expense claims before the 7th February 2011!
Dear All,
We thank you for your participation in the EEB events organized in 2010.
And as we’re closing our accounts for 2010; can we kindly ask you to send us ASAP your
travel expenses before the 7th February 2011 – Past this date; we shall no longer
consider your reimbursement.
However, if you have sent it; please disregard this note.
We wish you all the best in 2011.
With regards,
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
For questions or to send your reimbursement requests:
Isabel de Jesus Isabel.dejesus@eeb.org
MEMBERS SECTION
eMPOWER – Empowering citizens to influence the decision making & policy formulation on
environmental issues
Three EEB members, LPN - Liga para a Protecção do Ambiente (Portugal), LEGAMBIENTE (Italy) and
MEDITERRANEAN SOS Network (Greece) have joined on a project to promote European
environmental epetitions.
eMPOWER is an eParticipation Trial Project co-funded by the European Commission under the EU
eParticipation Preparatory Action. The vision of the eMPOWER is to motivate and strengthen the
involvement of NGOs and citizens in the decision-making process on environmental issue at a
National and European Level, by providing tools for supporting citizens’ participation and collection
of signatures to promote relevant public initiatives and demands of civil society through epetitions.
With partners from the Mediterranean countries - Portugal, Italy and Greece – with common cultural
characteristics and environmental problems, the platform combines epetitions on issues that cut
across these countries.
The main objectives are:
• Disseminate information on critical environmental issues;
• Bringing citizens, their claims and demands of decision centers and the European
policy process;
• Provide feedback to citizens on important environmental policy;
• Contribute to the formulation of legislation and better informed, strengthening
democracy and citizen participation.
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We invite you to visit the eMPOWER epetition platform that is currently available in English,
Greek, Italian and Portuguese language. Click here:
http://www.ep-empower.eu/epetitions/
BE PART OF THE SOLUTION WITH A CLICK!
eMPOWER is inspired on the European Citizens’ Iniciative – ECI – an innovation of the
Lisbon’s Treaty, aiming to increase participatory democracy in the European Union. The
initiative enables one million EU citizens, to call directly on the European Commission to
bring forward an initiative of interest to them in an area of EU competence. The Members of
European Parliament voted in December 2010 in favor of the regulation aimed at
implementing ECI. The European Commission will soon have to consider drafting new EU
laws if it is asked to do so by at least one million people. For more information on that issue
click here: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/citizens_initiative/index_en.htm
For further information on this issue, please contact
Zélia Vitorino (lpn.intervencao@lpn.pt)
Cátia Godinho (lpn.comunicacao@lpn.pt )
EU POLICIES
Environment Council, March 14, preliminary agenda:
Legislative dossiers
• WEEE
(poss.) Political agreement
• GMO
Orientation debate
Non legislative activities
• Climate Change: After Cancún
Exchange of views / Council conclusion
•
Low-carbon economy roadmap 2050
Exchange of views
•
Mercury Strategy
(poss.) Council conclusions
• Contribution to the EU Semester - Resource Efficiency Flagship Initiative
- Exchange of views
•
CAP reform
Policy debate
Commission: Resource efficiency – 26 January
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NEWS FROM EEB’ S EU POLICY UNIT

Air
European Commission hazy on future air legislation
“In his statement, Commissioner Potocnik recognises that the NEC Directive has been
proven to be effective and that it has delivered significant positive impacts for human health
and the environment, which makes the case for an immediate revision of the Directive,” said
John Hontelez, EEB Secretary General.
“Instead, the Commissioner points to other policy areas such as energy, transport and
agriculture as priorities, leaving it unclear how action in these areas would help improve air
quality when new targets are missing.”
For further information on this issue, please go to the list of press releases and
follow the link or contact Louise Duprez: louise.duprez@eeb.org
European City Ranking Project
The European City Ranking Project (CRP) is in the analysis stage at the moment, with the
next stage being the preparation of the draft city ranking. We are reviewing the responses
we’ve received from the cities so far, as well as evaluating their air quality and transport
action plans. There are still a few cities that have yet to submit their completed
questionnaires, and we hope to receive those within the next week or so. Once the draft
ranking has been compiled, the next step will be to send it out to the national groups for their
comments and feedback, then we can proceed to producing the final version of the ranking
and writing up an accompanying position paper.
We are already seeing some good examples of “best practice” in the cities’ programmes and
initiatives, as well as examples of minimal effort or lack of commitment in various areas.
Specifically, one can see that cities in general are not really making enough effort to move
the public from personal motorised vehicles to alternative, more sustainable modes of
transport, a measure which could contribute significantly to air quality improvements and
stronger compliance with the Air Quality and NEC Directives.
For further information on this issue, please contact Fiona McLean
fionamclean.work@gmail.com

Energy
Energy Saving Campaign Mapping Exercise
We have recently carried out a mapping exercise as part of our Energy Saving Campaign,
aimed to assess the ambition, success and position on energy/energy saving of the EU
Member States. The questionnaire was completed by 16 different organizations, present in
15 different countries, the majority of which are EEB member groups. Many thanks to those
who took the time to respond. The following are two graphs which have emerged from the
questionnaire, the first mapping the implementation of energy related directives and the other
mapping the market penetration of ESCOs (Energy Service Companies). From the survey it
is also clear that most governments are not in favour of binding energy saving targets or are
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reluctant to support them until a clear methodology to measure energy saving is developed.
The survey has helped us to understand to what level the various Directives are being
implemented nationally and the challenges needed to achieve greater competition and better
services in the energy market in the different Member States. Full details are due to be
circulated shortly. For more information on the results contact Christian Debono –
Christian.debono@eeb.org
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Energy Services Directive
the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
Ecodesign Directive
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This bar chart plots the implementation of the Energy Services Directive, the Energy Performance of
Buildings Directive and the Ecodesign Directive
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The higher the bars the better the ESCO's
market penetration
This bar chart shows the extent of ESCOs market penetration
For further information on this issue, please contact Christian Debono –
Christian.debono@eeb.org
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
Seveso
Active membership involvement needed in order to improve the new Seveso Proposal
The current Seveso II Directive 96/82/EC1 was adopted in 1996 and amended by Directive
2003/105/EC. It followed major chemical accidents with devastating consequences such as the
well known accidents in Seveso, Bhopal, Schweizerhalle, Enschede, Toulouse, Buncefiled and
recently the red mud disaster in Hungary (to name a few). In average there are about 30 major
accidents per year!
The Seveso legislation has as a main objective the prevention of major accidents involving (large)
quantities of dangerous substances/mixtures and to limit the consequences of such accidents for
the environment and human health. Besides notification obligation, requirements depend on the
amount of present/likely presence of hazardous substances. The higher the amounts, the stricter
the requirements. Concrete obligations are set out in the so called Major Accident Prevention
Policy (MAPP) and to establish a safety report, and provide for Safety Management Systems
(SMS). About 10.000 installations, mainly the (petro)chemicals, storage and metal refining sector,
are covered by Seveso in the EU. However there are plenty of exclusions (offshore exploration,
transport of dangerous substances, including pipelines, mining activities etc).
The European Commission has proposed on 21st December 2010 a Seveso III Proposal on the
control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances. The proposal COM (2010) 781
final can be found at following link:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seveso/pdf/com_2010_0781_en.pdf .
The main changes proposed are:


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to align Annex I to the Directive (defining the substances and thresholds falling
within the scope) to changes to the EU system of classification of dangerous
substances to which it refers;
to include a mechanisms to adapt Annex I in the future (substances
included/excluded that do/do not present a major-accident hazard);
introduce some changes to land use planning requirements
to strengthen provisions relating to public access to safety information,
participation in decision-making and access to justice, and improve the way
information is collected, managed, made available and shared;
to introduce stricter standards for inspections of installations
The remaining changes are minor technical modifications to clarify and update certain
provisions, including some streamlining and simplification. The most significant change in
the Seveso III Proposal relates to the scope, in particular the qualifying substances and
thresholds (so called Annex I). It is mainly due to the adaptation to the EU system of
classification introduced by the Regulation No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and
packaging of substances and mixtures (herewith CLP Regulation) which needs to be
finalized by 1st June 2015. The CLP Regulation introduces 3 toxicity categories with different
thresholds and cut off values as well as divided according to 3 exposure routes (oral, dermal,
inhalation).2
Worrying is the introduction of a new mechanism that would allow EU-wide substance
derogations / establishment-specific derogations at Member State level, through delegated
acts (Art. 4).
1
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1996L0082:20081211:EN:PDF
2
More info on CLP http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/ghs/index_en.htm
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In regards to strengthening of provisions relating to access to information/justice and
increase of public participation, adaptations needed to be made in order to comply
with the Arhus framework.
In regards to land use planning the proposal makes clear that other installations (also nonSeveso ones) and the aims of environmental protection as well as human health need to be
considered.
For more information on the new Proposal you can find the relevant documents (Impact
Assessment, supporting studies etc) on the DG ENV website
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/seveso/review.htm
EEB has not yet established a formal position on the new proposal, which will be elaborated
in due course. However, the most up to date position of EEB is reflected in the ideas
paper you can access here http://www.eeb.org/?LinkServID=8FE400B1-0905-856D13F880231E9AC5EE&showMeta=0 . This paper was submitted during the stakeholder
conference. In its initial DG ENV Proposal a lot of elements of our “ideas paper” were
reflected, which unfortunately got dropped in the last moment due to industry lobby.
The Hungarian Presidency seeks to reach a first reading agreement by June 2011.
EEB members are kindly asked to inform Senior Policy Officer on Industrial Policy and
Chemicals on whether your organisation is interested and willing to be involved in the
upcoming co-decision process.
For further information on this issue, please contact Christian Schaible
christian.schaible@eeb.org
NEWS FROM OTHER EEB UNITS

Zero Mercury Campaign
UNEP – 2nd Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC2) – Chiba,
Japan.
The second Mercury Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is currently taking place
in Chiba, Japan, 24-28 January 2011. All relevant documents and details about the meeting
can be found at
http://www.unep.org/hazardoussubstances/Mercury/Negotiations/INC2/tabid/3468/language/
en-US/Default.aspx
The EEB is the co-coordinator of the Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG), an international
coalition of more than 93 public interest environmental and health non-governmental
organizations from 45countries from around the world. ZMWG strives for zero supply,
demand, and emissions of mercury from all anthropogenic sources, with the goal of reducing
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mercury in the global environment to a minimum. Our mission is to advocate and support the
adoption and implementation of a legally binding instrument which contains mandatory
obligations to eliminate where feasible, and otherwise minimize, the global supply and trade
of mercury, the global demand for mercury, anthropogenic releases of mercury to the
environment, and human and wildlife exposure to mercury. (www.zeromercury.org )
ZMWG preparatory work and documents for the INC2 include the following:
23 January 2011, Chiba Japan,
CACP/ZMWG NGO lunch event - Honoring Minamata. Poster-invitation also in Japanese
ZMWG comments on the Elements paper
ZMWG summary of changes to the elements paper
January 2011
ZMWG comments on the UNEP INC 2 Draft elements paper
January 2011
ZMWG INC 2 Briefing Paper Series
Supply
Products
Mercury content in lamps
Vinyl Chloro Monomer (VCM)
Chlor-alkali
Waste
Waste and Basel
Mercury Air Emissions
Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS)
Artisanal Small Scale Gold Mining (ASGM)
January 2011
A press release was published for the launching of the event: ZMWG/EEB/CACP/HCWH PR
Best way to honor minAmata is to adopt a strong mercury treaty, say NGOs
24 January 2011
For more info please contact:
Elena.Lymberidi@eeb.org or Rachel.kamande@eeb.org
For more information please contact Elena Lymberidi-Settimo:
elena.lymberidi@eeb.org
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
2010 dates
EEB EVENTS
11 February
Brussels
18 February,
Law-group meeting with main
focus on EIA and ELD
Extraordinary General Meeting of
OTHER EVENTS
INSTITUTIONS
8
morning 1 hour
meeting Brussels
18 February
Brussels
19 February
Brussels
EEB members to confirm the new
Secretary General
EU Environmental Achievements
and Future Challenges – farewell
conference for John Hontelez
For latest version of the
programme go to the web
Board Meeting
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS RELEASES
EEB Press Releases – 2010/11 (www.eeb.org)
nd
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December
23rd
December
19th
January
24th
January
Ten Green Tests set for new Hungarian EU Presidency
EU postpones cleanup of biofuels policy again
European Commission hazy on future air legislation
Best way to honor minAmata is to adopt a strong mercury treaty, say NGOs
EEB Recent Publications – 2010/11 ( www.eeb.org )
December
2011
EEB Conference Report “reforming the cap: greener, better, fitter?”
November 30th
21st
January
19th
January
13th
January
7th January
Letter to President Barroso & Commissioners concerning the Resource
Efficiency Flagship – approval at College on 26th January
Energy Saving Coalition letter to President van Rompuy
Letter to Barroso & Commissioners on revising NEC Directive
ENERGY FACT SHEET 1 - Who are the players on energy saving
ENERGY FACT SHEET 2 - Current EU Energy Legislation
ENERGY FACT SHEET 3 - Benefits of energy saving
3rd January EEB's Memorandum to the Hungarian Presidency Jan 2011
All EEB publications and press releases are on the web (if you are missing one,
please let us know!): http://www.eeb.org/Index.htm
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WEBSITES

EEB in the Media
European Environmental Bureau (EEB) reviews the Belgian Presidency ...
In its assessment of the Belgian EU Presidency´s environmental outcome, the European
Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomed the opening of an important debate ...
www.globe-europe.eu/.../776-european-environmental-bureau... 20 January 2011
EU delays tackling air pollution to 2012 or later | todayshotnews.net
By News, 19 January 2011
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a federation of 140 European groups,
criticised the decision. “We see no excuse for delaying a revision any further,” said EEB air
policy officer Louise Duprez. “If they are suggesting it will be ...
todayshotnews.net - http://www.todayshotnews.net/
Ten Green Tests for the Hungarian EU Presidency | EU Budget News ...
The European Environmental Bureau has set out its Ten Green Tests for the ... As for every
EU presidency since 1998, the European Environmental Bureau has ...
lowcarbonbudget.eu/.../ten-green-tests-for-the-hungarian-eu-p...
The Top Ten Unfounded Health Scares of 2010
American Council on Science and Health 29/12/10
In October, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) claimed that phthalates are
responsible for causing genital abnormalities in children and declines in ...
Tough rules for nano food ingredients top prioirity for H1 2011 ...
Chemical Watch
Leading NGO umbrella group the European Environmental Bureau says securing research
and labelling requirements for nanomaterials in food will be one of its ...
Tough rules for nano food ingredients top prioirity for H1 2011 ...
Chemical Watch 23/12/10
Leading NGO umbrella group the European Environmental Bureau says securing research
and labelling requirements for nanomaterials in food will be one of its ...
Revised EU rules will improve safety at chemical plants - bureau
ICIS, 22 December 2010
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) supported the Seveso II Directive revision as
part of its strategy of pushing for "prevention and precautionary ...
EU Postpones Cleanup of Biofuels Policy | 2celsius
By Raul Cazan
Environmental groups BirdLife Europe, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and
Transport & Environment (T&E) are calling for the immediate revision of biofuel sustainability
criteria to take ILUC impacts into account, ...
2celsius - http://www.2celsius.org/new/
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
Miscellaneous
Please find below a useful link to the calendar of the HU Presidency.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/fc/118684.pdf

Follow as from 1 January 2011 the Hungarian Presidency of the
Council of the EU on: www.eutrio.hu
Read on
Improving environmental policy instruments - Council conclusions 3061st ENVIRONMENT Council meeting, Brussels, 20 December 2010
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/envir/118646.pdf
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