European Clean Air Act of 2020
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Preamble
We the members of the European Union
Determined to enhance Global Climate Action
And enforce regulations to help spread international awareness
Hereby establishes this act and the following contents:Section I: Declaration of Principles
Whereas, the European Union and its members shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
Whereas, the European Union shall promote and protect the global environment to attain sustainable development while recognizing the primary responsibility of national governments to deal with environmental problems.The European Union recognizes that the responsibility of cleaning the habitat and environment is primarily area-based.
Whereas, the European Union also recognizes the principle that “polluters must pay”.
Whereas, the European Union recognizes that a clean and healthy environment is for the good of all and should, therefore, be the concern of all.Section II: Declaration of Policies
Whereas, the European Union and its members shall pursue a policy of balancing development and environmental protection. To achieve this end, the frame work for sustainable development shall be pursued. It shall be the policy of the EU member-states to:- Formulate a holistic national program of air pollution management that shall be implemented by the governments through proper delegation and effective coordination of functions and activities;
- Encourage cooperation and self-regulation among citizens and industries through the application of market-based instruments;
- Focus primarily on pollution prevention rather than on control and provide for a comprehensive management program for air pollution;
- Promote public information and education and to encourage the participation of an informed and active public in air quality planning and monitoring; and
- Formulate and enforce a system of accountability for short and long-term adverse environmental impact of a project, program or activity. This shall include the setting up of a funding or guarantee mechanism for clean-up and environmental rehabilitation and compensation for personal damages.
Whereas, EU Member-states shall prepare an annual report to the Commissioner of Internal Affairs concerning their nation's Air Quality.
Section III: Recognition of Rights
Whereas, pursuant to the above-declared principles, the following rights of citizens of all member-states are hereby sought to be recognized and the EU members shall seek to guarantee their enjoyment:- The right to breathe clean air;
- The right to utilize and enjoy all natural resources according to the principles of sustainable development;
- The right to participate in the formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring of environmental policies and programs and in the decision-making process;
- The right to participate in the decision-making process concerning development policies, plans and programs projects or activities that may have adverse impact on the environment and public health;
- The right to be informed of the nature and extent of the potential hazard of any activity, undertaking or project and to be served timely notice of any significant rise in the level of pollution and the accidental or deliberate release into the atmosphere of harmful or hazardous substances;
- The right of access to public records which a citizen may need to exercise his or her rights effectively under this Act;
- The right to bring action in court or quasi-judicial bodies to enjoin all activities in violation of environmental laws and regulations, to compel the rehabilitation and cleanup of affected area, and to seek the imposition of penal sanctions against violators of environmental laws; and
- The right to bring action in court for compensation of personal damages resulting from the adverse environmental and public health impact of a project or activity.
Whereas, to enforce the following policies within the region, the following rights of all member-states are hereby sought to be recognized by the European Union's institutions:
- The right to hold meetings and form international organizations that help develop and spread international awareness for safer and much breathable air.
- The right to refuse operations of Private companies that contribute to the contamination of air within their nation.
- The right to bring action in court for compensation of significantly large-scale damages resulting from the adverse environmental and public health impact of a project or activity.
- The right to file a case to the ECoJ to provide fair penalities to other member-states that does not abide by any portion of this act.
Friedrich van Allen
Councilor, United Reichs of Reitzmag -
Debate on this legislation begins NOW and will last until 06:30 GMT February 20, 2020.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista -
Before I fully read this legislation, I was excited by the prospect of having air quality concerns addressed in a way that clean drinking water concerns have recently been addressed. I definitely believe that we need to ensure that all Europeans have clean air to breathe regardless of where they live. However, I'm a bit disappointing by this proposal.
Before I dive too deeply into things, I'll simply outline my concerns upfront: this Act simply tries to do way too much in scope and the actual policies it proposes are not very effective in enforcing what it aims to achieve, in my opinion. This Act consists of a mostly-ok list of rights, but it fails to produce any policies which actually enforce and entrench those rights. Instead, it has more recommendations and words of encouragement than anything else.
Most of the rights under Section III are fine, but some are massive reaches or simply too unclear. For instance, "the right to utilize and enjoy all natural resources according to the principles of sustainable development" is a bit vague and could easily be used out of context. I'm assuming that the sustainable development part is supposed the key component here, but all the words preceding sustainable development suggest that citizens are entitled to literally all resources. The text could be interpreted to mean that all natural resources are up for grabs to be used by citizens. This could be concerning, for instance, because I definitely don't want private Inquistan citizens to have their hands on uranium. Other rights which have been outlined, such as "the right to participate in the decision-making process concerning development policies, plans and programs projects or activities that may have adverse impact on the environment and public health" don't really mean much, because it could be argued that current state legislatures already allow for such participation through democratic voting, even though I'm assuming what this Act is really trying to achieve is to include the public directly in the formulation of environmental and health policies.
With that all being said, I don't want to spend too much time picking apart each of the rights that have been outlined. Instead, my main suggestion to the author of this Act is to instead focus on a few key rights, instead of this many, and to produce actionable policies which support those rights. To give an example, in the Safe and Accessible Water Act, there was only one right which was outlined: which is the right to safe drinking water. That's it. That right is guaranteed by 1) ensuring that all settlements within that member state have guaranteed access to safe drinking water and 2) ensuring that all settlements within that member state have effective wastewater and sewage treatment systems. How are those policies carried out? By mandating that all states create clean drinking water and sewage quality standards and by mandating that all states have national agencies to monitor, regulate and enforce those standards. This proposed Act here, has way too many different rights that it hopes to guarantee and not nearly enough actionable policies to ensure those rights.
I believe this Act needs to be completely refocused. I'm not even sure if amendments could save this bill in my view.
My final thoughts are concerning the structure of this bill as a whole. I've noticed a certain formatting trend that has been adopted by the councillors of Reitzmag. I would recommend that the Councillor of Reitzmag take a look and familiarize himself with the passed legislation in our Acquis Communautaire in terms of their formatting. Under each section of a bill, the specific points should be organized into clauses and sub clauses. In front of the ECoJ it is much easier to refer to specific clauses or sub clauses under sections of legislation rather than referring to "whereas number 4 and whereas number 7 under x section". The term whereas is also not a very definitive term, and it's also just quite superfluous. There is no point to saying "Whereas, we support human rights" when we can simply and more definitively say that "we support human rights". I'm not trying to be nit-picky, but as the Council Speaker, I want to give Councillors advice on how they can write effective legislation that could be defended before the ECoJ. I want all Council legislation to be upheld and to be upheld in a way that honours their author's true intentions. The ECoJ tends to - and rightfully so as a non-partisan body - judge legislation very, very narrowly and at face-value. Thus, the safest way to organize legislation is to do it as predecessors have done.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista -
I greatly agree to some statements that Coun. Firoux gave. But I want to admit that I submitted my proposal unfinished. Though, I promise that I would finish the full context of this resolution through my amendments in which I disagree to Coun. Firoux's belief that would not save this act.
It by far shows that the major concern that Europe is facing is the lack of public awareness on the fact that the major cause of Climate Change and Global Warming are human activities. Although, most nations have established laws that are of the same idea to this proposal, it is definitely better that we secure the safety of the Europeans. This resolution properly gives people greater democracy. On which, the phrase from Section III that tells "the right to utilize and enjoy all natural resources according to the principles of sustainable development" primarily means that people are entitled the rights to use any natural resource but must be agreed by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be established by the European Schengen Conference in Victoria city.
Therefore, it is greatly suggested that other EU Councilors participate to the event which will be extended if necessary.
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The voluntary conference done by Reitzmag can not be legally referenced as a basis for any piece of European Legislation of this council or the European Union as a supranational organization. Vayinaod will not recognize it as such.
Any section of this act must be clear cut and stern in what it wishes to acchomplish. All this act seems to do is say provide vague statements with little in terms of actual solutions.
I request a debate extension from the Speaker, I do not believe the act can be saved with amendments without a complete and total overhaul, to the point I would personally rather spend time constructing a new bill. However, the lack of input from other Councillors is rather startling.
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I'd like to see this bill withdrawn if possible and worked on and re-presented.
Councillor Marion Rousselot
Deputy Speaker of the European Council
Councillor for the Kingdom of Gallorum -
I will extend debate on this legislation for a further 48 hours until 22:30 GMT February 22nd, 2020.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista -
Good afternoon everyone.
I second Cllr. Marion Rousselot proposal. I think, and the Spanish Goverment also does, that we need an European Clean Act, but it needs to be worked on and re-presented. Anyway, I think this act shouldn't be only the property of a single country, otherwise of every country in the European Union.
We all here know that Reitzmag's councillors bring great proposals to the Council, but they need to suit with the Acquis Communautaire in terms of formatting, as Cllr. Firoux said.
Cllr. Alfonso Rodríguez
Councillor for the Kingdom of Spain -
In response to the requests of the other councilors, I ask that this act be held on a standby until I submit the complete proposal. Just as I said, I submitted this proposal still incomplete and that it lacked the policies which plays a key role on an act.
Friedrich van Allen
Councilor, United Reichs of Reitzmag -
Legislation can't be held on standby once it has been proposed, unfortunately. Since this legislation is still apparently incomplete, I am not sure what point there is moving forward with voting on something that is still a work in progress . As most of this legislation still needs to be re-worked, the amount of amendments that we would have to sort through would be astronomical. Instead, I'll simply dissmiss this legislation and we can hopefully see this Act re-proposed in a fresh and complete state soon.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista
The Kingdom of Spain