Komissiolle ym­pä­ris­tö­va­hin­ko­di­rek­tii­vin kuulemiseen

Ympäristöpäällikkö Tapani Veistola täytti komission kuulemissivun nettilomakkeen 27.12.2021 myös ympäristöjuristi Matti Kattaisen kommenttien ja kirjallisuusviitteiden avustamana. Veistola osallistui direktiivin ja sen toimeenpanon valmisteluun sekä kokosi Suomen tiedot sitä koskeneen toimivuusarvioinnin pohjaksi.

Suomen luonnonsuojeluliitto (Finnish Association for Nature Conservation) is the oldest and biggest environmental non-governmental organisation in Finland. We strongly support the evaluation and strengthening of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD).

Our experience is that the idea of the ELD was very good. However, the ELD has been used only in a few cases in Finland. That is why the Polluter Pays Principle is not working and taxpayers have to pay remediation costs. In fact, usually nature is the last payer – because of lack of remediation. We think that the biggest gaps are in the very narrow definitions (“significant”, scope of “environmental damage”) and slow processes (there should be maximum time for starting remediation works in the ELD).

There are brand new studies, for example Sándor Fülöp (ed.): “Improving implementation and the evidence base for the ELD” (COWI, Prospect, Justice and Environment, 2021), stating: “The problems analysed in the study include the availability of ELD-specific information in the Member States, the scarce use of the ELD laws in the specific sense, and also the time and costs of these procedures. The almost totally lacking ability and willingness of the operators to pay the costs shows even more how important is to develop the ELD systems towards ensuring more effective prevention of seemingly dangerous activities, not seldom reckless operations.”

We encourage the Commission to strengthen both the ELD and implementation.

On behalf of SUOMEN LUONNONSUOJELULIITTO

Tapani Veistola
Head of Environmental Policy Unit
Acting Executive Director

Lisätietoja

Toiminnanjohtaja Tapani Veistola

• +358 400 615 530
• tapani.veistola(a)sll.fi
• @TapaniVeistola