The implementation of European law is a very mixed affair.
It now seems that even the European Parliament are waking up to this.
They are going to seriously examine the problem. They are going to produce reports on the area.
The important thing to note here at the MEPs won’t be limited by political groups points. Only interest and the physical time to work on the issue will.
The reasons for poor implementation vary depending on the issue and country. Sharing best practice could help Member States implement the best practices, rather than designing from scratch their own unique system. In the field of air quality monitoring, the sharing of best practice helped a number of countries. Lack of enforcement or too close a relationshio between authorities and firms may be another. Sometimes the targets may just be too ambitious to implement.
Ulster Outside the EU
In 1997 I remember discovering that most EU environmental legislation, in particular air quality legislation, had not been transposed into N.Ireland (where despite my accent, I was born). I wondered if, unknown to me and the people of Ulster, N.Ireland had left the UK..
Unfortunately, the reality was far duller. A civil servant in N.Ireland had decided not to implement the law into N.Ireland. The British Government seemed to know all about this, but given the situation in N.Ireland, looked the other way.
What was worse was that the European Commission were also perfectly aware of the situation, and had chosen to ignore the problem.
Fortunately, the late Michael Meacher MP, then Secretary of State for the Environment was informed of the situation through political back channels, and saw things differently, intervened, and forced the N.Ireland administration to implement the law.
Busy Committees
This could keep the fisheries committee busy, where the Commission seem to be happy to ignore that the discards ban is being ignored, and the Environment Committee, where many Member States have been ignoring the laws they signed up to for many years.
It is positive news that moves are being taken to address this at last. The results could well be damming. They may well turn up more Ulster like situations.
We know of the “power” to initiate, but the “power to implement” belongs to the Commission too. Once it is accepted that this is a “power” not a simple obligation following EP and Council decisions we are in dire straits. This report is indeed interesting and apparently necessary. Only it is sad that we need yet another institution to control what trusted bodies are expected to do.