There is a wide range of EU legislation in force concerning the environment. The main areas covered are:
Much of EU legislation to protect the environment is quite technical, in that it sets out detailed technical and scientific standards. It is also usual for the legislation to require member states to provide information to the European Commission about how they are implementing the rules and about how effective they have been.
In addition, there are several international conventions on environmental
protection. In general, these are ratified by the EU and then implemented
through EU legislation.
The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the local
authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency are the main bodies
responsible for implementing environmental legislation in Ireland. The
principal environmental Acts are:
Environmental
Protection Agency Act 1992
Waste
Management Act 1996
Waste
Management (Amendment) Act 2001
Local
Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 and Local
Government (Water Pollution) (Amendment) Act 1990
Air
Pollution Act 1987
Planning
and Development Act 2000
Protection
of the Environment Act 2003
In addition, there is a range of Statutory Instruments implementing legislation
concerning particular Directives. Information on these is available from the Department of Environment, Community
and Local Government.
EU environmental legislation is enforced in the same way as other EU legislation. The European Commission monitors its implementation and may bring individual member states to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failure to properly implement it.
In 2003 the EU agreed a framework decision on the protection of the environment through criminal law (Decision 2003/80/JHA of 27 January 2003, OJ 2003 L 29) (pdf). The European Court of Justice has since annulled this decision (for technical, legal reasons). This means the decision is neither valid nor enforceable. In the course of annulling this decision, the Court ruled that the EU has the power to require member states to establish criminal penalties for the purpose of protecting the environment. The Commission intends to propose such legislation.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) aims to support sustainable development and to help improve the environment through the provision of information to policy makers and the public.
LIFE+ 2007-2013 is an EU co-financing programme which aims to contribute to the development, implementation and updating of EU environment policy and environmental legislation. LIFE+ also aims to facilitate the integration of the environment into other policies, and achieve sustainable development in the EU. The regulations governing LIFE+ 2007-2013 (pdf) came into force in May 2007.
The main components are:
The EU action programme for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the field of environmental protection is being incorporated into the LIFE+ progamme.
If the information you want is not already publicly available you can use Directive 2003/4/EC to access it. This Directive on access to environmental information provides that individuals have the right to access certain environmental information held by public authorities. Information must be provided within one month of a request.
Directive 2003/35/EC deals with public participation in decision-making. It provides that member states must ensure that mechanisms exist to facilitate public participation in decisions about the environment.