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The meeting of the European Environmental Council

At the meeting of the European Environmental Council held in Luxemburg yesterday, on 14 October, a political agreement was reached on the draft Regulation and Directive establishing the requirements restricting the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases and the draft Directive on mining waste, which is especially important for Estonia. Covering the expenses related to the network of Natura 2000 nature reserves will be discussed further at a meeting in December.

The opinions of different countries on the restriction on the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases mainly employed in fire extinguishing equipment and refrigeration appliances were clashing. The political agreement was achieved after discussions in the course of four Presidencies owing to the efforts of the current Dutch Presidency. This time, too, the drafts discussed were opposed by Denmark and Austria because in their opinion these requirements will not enable them to maintain their stricter national norms. Portugal and Sweden did not participate in voting. Due to the qualified majority, the draft was given the green light for further processing. 

The mining waste directive that is crucial for Estonia will establish minimum requirements for safe handling of waste resulting from mining. The draft Directive requires waste handling facilities to have a financial warranty for elimination of possible environmental damage, closing of the facility and putting the area in order. Despite the concerns of the European Commission and some Member States that the requirements of the Directive are considerably weaker than initially proposed by the Commission, meaning that the organisation of the handling of non-hazardous mining waste will be decided independently by Member States to a remarkably large extent, the parties reached a compromise that is in line with the position of Estonia and the draft will be passed to the European Parliament for 2nd reading.

The discussion of the proposals of the European Commission for financing the Natura 2000 trans-European network of nature reserves, which, at times, was quite heated at yesterday’s Council meeting, will continue at the December meeting of the Environmental Council.

15 Member States including Estonia submitted a declaration in the Council minutes stating that they support the co-financing of Natura 2000 sites by the EU by means of rural development and structural funds starting from 2007 but they consider this to be insufficient. Since these funds are not sufficient to co-finance all the activities necessary for protecting the sites, the declaration of 15 Member States emphasised the need for the newly established LIFE+ environmental financing instrument to provide for a clearly defined component of nature protection. The European Commission was addressed with a call for preparation of an overview of the eligibility of all Natura activities by the December meeting of the Council. The present system for financing expenses related to Natura 2000 will end in 2006.

On 13 October, on the eve of the Environmental Council meeting, the Ministers met with citizens associations to discuss the financing of Natura 2000 sites starting from the year 2007. Estonia’s positions introduced at the meeting, which are also stated in the declaration, were close to the opinions of representatives of citizens associations. 

Further information:
Allan Gromov
Deputy Secretary General on International Co-operation, 
Ministry of the Environment
Phone (+372) 50 11 485; (+372) 6262 840

Monika Kopti
Press Representative, Ministry of the Environment
Phone (+372) 626 2993; (+372) 521 2602
E-mail: