Today, 17 May, the Estonian government approved the draft Environmental Liability Act developed by the Ministry of the Environment. The draft will now be sent to the first reading of the parliament. The draft act is based on one of the fundamental principles of environmental legislation: the polluter pays. The individual or party that caused the damage must bear the full cost of redressing it. “The Environmental Liability Act will make us better able to ensure that damage to the environment is sorted out by the people who caused it in the first place,” said Minister of the Environment Jaanus Tamkivi. “If someone destroys a valuable natural community, for example, he won’t merely have to pay a fine, but will also be required to restore it to the way it originally was.” The draft legislation allows both individuals and legal entities to be cited as those responsible for damage to the environment. If the person or party proves unable to fully rectify the situation, they must return it to a state as close to the original as possible. Only damage to certain environmental elements is considered to be damage to the environment in law: habitats and bird, animal and plant species protected at the national or EU level; and land areas, surface and ground water and soil protected under the Nature Protection Act. The damage must be significant, i.e. it must threaten the sustainability and viability of a habitat or species, change the state of surface or ground water, etc. In the event of damage which is not considered to be environmental damage under the Environmental Liability Act, the party causing the damage must pay compensation according to the existing regulations. The Environmental Liability Act does not extend to the cases set out in international oil spill and nuclear incident conventions or to damage caused in the exercising of authority in matters of security or through Force majeure. Neither does the Act cover damage to species and communities which are not under protection, or damage to forests (except in cases where the forest is itself a protected habitat), the earth’s crust (except in cases of damage to soil) or ambient air. Cases of damage or the threat of damage to the environment will, in accordance with the Act, be processed by the county environmental services of the Ministry of the Environment, whom the party at fault must inform of the damage that has been caused. For further information please contact: Agnes Jürgens |
