Improving the Implementation of the European Environmental Liability Directive (2004/35/EC) in the EU Member States

In the following years, all European Member States managed to align their national legislation to the Directive's core values gradually. To this day, however, it is to assert that the level of protection concerning the prevention and remediation of environmental damage varies strongly among national legislations.
The heterogeneous implementation and application of the ELD is likely to be caused by the Directive's framework character. According to Article 1 of the ELD, the purpose of the Directive is “to establish a framework of environmental liability based on the ‘polluter-pays' principle, to prevent and remedy environmental damage.” In other words: the Directive does not contain detailed requirements for national legislators butminimumspecifications to build up a legal mechanism for the prevention and remediation of environmental damage on national level. According to Article 16 paragraph 1 of the ELD, Member States may maintain and adopt “more stringent provisions […] including the identification of additional activities to be subject to the prevention and remediation requirements of [the ELD] and identification of additional responsible partners.”

Autor*in Dr. Manuel Patrick Schwind