Environmental inspections: launched by EC a consultation on the revision and the strengthening of EU legal framework

The European Commission has launched a public consultation closing on May 26th on the Revision of the EU legal framework on environmental inspections. Contributions are sought from national, regional and local authorities with environmental enforcement tasks, trans-European and national networks of environmental professionals, environmental non-governmental organisations, and citizens at large. The main objective of this consultation is to collect the views of all relevant stakeholders and the public at large for the revision of the current EU framework on environmental inspections to design a new horizontal binding instrument which the Commission intends to propose later in 2013. The consultation is accompanied by a study on possible options for strengthening the EU level role in environmental inspections and strengthening the Commission’s capacity to undertake effective investigations of alleged breaches in EU environmental law. This study was published by EC and conducted by a team of experts from the Bio Intelligence Service (BIO), the Ecologic Institute, and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).