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#9: Remede conference on 2-3 June 2008 in Warsaw

The presentations from the conference held in Warsaw on the 2 – 3 June are now downloadable form the publication page.

The Environmental Liability Directive: Use of Resource Equivalency Methods for Remedying Environmental Damage under Annex II

The REMEDE Project Team, in particular the Polish partner Pro-Biodiversity Service, together with the Polish Ministry of Environment organised a two-day conference in Warsaw. The main objective of the conference was to present the results of the REMEDE project and to provide a forum in which to discuss the implementation of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD). Presentations of the REMEDE results focused on the legal basis of the ELD, and methodological and pragmatic aspects of using resource equivalency methods for remedying environmental damage under Annex II of the Directive. The REMEDE team hopes that the conference will contribute to a better understanding of the opportunities the Environmental Liability Directive offers and to the transposition of the ELD provisions into daily practice as a useful tool for environmental planning and protection.

The conference, which was organised as interactive, with presentations on the first day and training on the second, was held on 2 and 3 June in the premises of the Ministry of Environment in Warsaw. The event attracted more than 100 participants.

#8: Briefing to the EU commission, Member States, industry representatives (20/03/08)

The REMEDE team went to Brussels for a briefing to a selection of Member States, industry representatives and staff of the European Commission on 11th – 12th March 2008.

Please click here for the slides from the presentations.

#7: New publication (20/11/07)

There is a new publication available to download from the publications page.

Draft Case Studies Selection Report (Deliverable 11)

This document is the terms of reference for each of the case studies that will be covered in the Deliverable 12. It contains the case study selection process, methodology for undertaking case studies, expertise involved, resource equivalency methods covered, key parameters that will be subject to sensitivity analysis and the required outputs from each case study.

Please note that this is a draft document until approved by the European Commission.

#6: New publication (22/10/07)

There is a new publication available to download from the publications page.

Assessment of Current Practice Regarding Environmental Liability in Member States (draft) (Deliverable 7)

Although the binding deadline of 30th April 2007 to transpose the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) into national law has passed, the ELD is still in the process of being transposed in most Member States. This survey of experts in Member States focused on: (i) the legal status of natural resource damage assessment and environmental liability in their country; (ii) application of the ELD and/or equivalent regulations dealing with environmental compensation (especially with respect to methodological issues); and (iii) perspectives on the implementation of the ELD. Responses from 16 MS have been received and reported here. Since the responses cover a wide variety of contexts from northern and southern Europe as well as the new accession countries, the results are deemed to be representative of the Union as a whole.

The responses show that there is a wide variation in the current application of liability (i.e. strict vs. fault-based) and in the current approach to damage assessment. For remediation assessment, approaches similar to resource-to-resource methods are more popular than value-to-value or value-to-cost methods. In the rare instance value-based approaches are applied, value-to-cost is the more common method. In general, national experts are often dissatisfied with current methods and their accuracy. In addition, experience with more sophisticated methodologies such as incorporation of non-use values, calculation of interim losses or the use of dynamic baselines, is rare. Therefore, the results of the survey underline the importance of a Toolkit offering Member States guidance and consistency in the application of resource equivalency methods in the context of the ELD.

Please note that this is a draft document until approved by the European Commission.

#5: REMEDE conference on 27 November 2007 in London (20/09/07)

We are happy to announce the REMEDE conference on 27 November 2007 in London.

This conference is organised to provide a platform for the discussion of some of the key issues surrounding the implementation of the Environmental Liability Directive. In particular, the conference will showcase the Toolkit produced by the REMEDE project for the European Commission on how to implement resource equivalency methods for assessing damage and determining remediation under Annex 2 of the Directive. The Toolkit is also relevant for selecting compensation measures under the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directives. The conference will provide delegates with the necessary information about the assumptions and techniques behind resource equivalency methods.

#4: Reviews of use of resource equivalency methods in US and EU available (13/07/07)

In the United States, as well as in Europe prior to the Environmental Liability Directive, various environmental laws have been enacted to provide for compensation for damage to natural resources. The purpose of Deliverable 6, now available to download from the publications page, is to summarise this experience in order to draw lessons for the application of resource equivalency methods under the ELD.

D6A reviews the state of the art of resource equivalency methods used in the US, while D6B investigates the use of similar methods in the EU. While the use of resource equivalency methods seems relatively unknown amongst ecologists working in the EU, many of the principles and approaches employed are used within the compensation and mitigation framework associated with the EU Birds, Habitats and Environmental Impact Assessment Directives.

These reports showcase a range of examples, considering different types of environmental stressors, receptors, and adverse responses that could be encountered; issues associated with scaling restoration; strategies being developed to facilitate effective decision-making under scientific uncertainty; and application in cases under a range of legal contexts.

#3: New publications (19/04/07)

There are two new publications available to download from the publications page.

Draft Toolkit document (Deliverable 8) outline

The final Toolkit document will be the main output of the REMEDE project. The purpose of the final Toolkit is to explain the steps necessary to undertake resource equivalency analyses. A draft version is currently being written, to be revised at a later stage to incorporate lessons which have been drawn from the project’s case studies. The outline of this draft, detailing its proposed contents, is now available to download.

Please note that this is only an outline of a draft and is therefore a very preliminary stage in the writing of the Toolkit document.

Consultative Workshop Report (Deliverable 9)

A consultative expert workshop was held in Brussels on the 28th February, involving members of the Project Consortium, European Commission staff and invited external experts. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the technical content of the Toolkit document, to raise issues which should be covered in it and contribute to the selection of the case studies that will form the bulk of the project’s second work package.

#2: Questionnaire of Member States' experience available to download (07/03/07)

In order to fully assess the existing experience in the EU of environmental liability schemes, we are collating responses to a questionnaire, which is now available to downoload.

This questionnaire is aimed at those in the Competent Authorities of Member States who will be responsible for implementing the ELD, or those who have had responsibility for implementing previous environmental liability schemes.

The quesionnaire can be found here in PDF format and here as a Word document.

This survey aims to assess the current practice of methodologies used for assessing damages to natural resources in the EU Member States. Such assessments may be part of environmental liability legislation, other national legislation, or other EU Directives such as the EIA, Habitats and Wild Birds Directives. Damages assessed may be used to determine restoration projects that provide environmental resources in lieu of the damaged resources, or to determine compensation payments from the polluter. With this survey we hope to identify what type (if any) of environmental and Natural Resource Damage Assessment methods are already used in the Member States. The results of the survey will be summarised in a report available on the REMEDE website and also sent to those participating.

If you think you or a colleague may be an appropriate person to complete the questionnaire, and you have not already done so, please contact:

Dr. Ingo Bräuer, [email protected] or Dr. Rainer Müssner, [email protected]
Tel: +49 30 86880-0
Fax: +49 30 86880-100
Ecologic – Institute for International and European Environmental Policy
Pfalzburger Str. 43/44
10717 Berlin, Germany

Thank you

#1: REMEDE project kicks off (26/10/06)

The REMEDE project is now underway, and has produced its first set of deliverables (related to project management). We anticipate that the first deliverable to be of interest to a wider audience – a legal analysis of the types of environmental damage covered by the Environmental Liability Directive and other relevant Directives – will be finished by the end of November. As we publish more, we’ll upload any documents to our ‘Publications’ page, and email those who have signed up to our mailing list. Please go to the ‘Mailing list’ page if you are interested in receiving such updates.