Report No. 186

Chapter VIII

Environmental Courts to follow certain fundamental principles

We are of the view that the Environment Court must follow the following principles. These principles must be part of the proposed statute dealing with Environmental Courts.

Polluter Pays Principle

The Polluter Pays Principle was first adopted at international level in the 1972 OECD Council Recommendation on Guiding Principles concerning the International Aspects of Environmental Policies. The 1974 principle experienced revival by OECD Council in 1989 in its Recommendation on the Application of the Polluter Pays Principle to Accidental Pollution, and the principle was not to be restricted to chronic polluter. In 1991, the OECD Council reiterated the Principle in its Recommendations on the Uses of Economic Instruments in Environmental Policy.

The European Council adopted it in its Recommendation 75/436 in 1975 and reiterated in the Fifth Environmental Action Programme and in the 2001 EC Guidelines and in the Waste Framework Directive 1991 and Article 10 of the Directive 1999/31/EC and Article 99 Directive 2000/Cr/EC. It was adopted in single European Act (SEA) by Article 130 R(Z) (new Article 174(2)) and Article 130 of the EC Treaty.