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Brief news:
The Parliament adopted in first reading on 26 February the report
by Pernille Frahm (GUE/NGL, Denmark) on Persistent Organic
Pollutants (POPs). It will now be forwarded to EU ministers for
possible adoption on 2 March. Close contact was maintained
throughout with the Council on this regulation to allow a swift
adoption by EU minister in view of the ratification of the global Stockholm
Convention on POPs signed by the European Community in May
2001.
After approval by EU ministers, the production, trade and use
of 11 POPs will immediately be banned throughout the EU. Mrs Frahm
has indicated after the vote that two other Pollutants (DDT and
lindane) obtained derogations at the insistence of the Spanish
government. However, she added that the derogation on DDT only
concerns one Spanish factory and will most probably be revoked in
2008.
Commissioner Monti regretted that the ban on POPs was adopted
on the basis of the environment provisions of the EC treaty and
had not taken the perspective of the internal market into account.
Monti said this approach was unacceptable and added that the
Commission reserves the right to challenge the regulation before
the European Court of Justice.
POPs are particularly resistant to degradation and seem to
circulate easily around the globe as they were found as far away
as in the arctic region. Traces of POPs are also commonly found in
the human body, accumulating in the fatty tissue and remaining
there from one generation to the next.
Links:
Official Documents:
Press article: Reuters
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