Právo životního prostředí EU včera, dnes a zítra

EU ENVIRONMENTAL LAW YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
Dear readers,
You are holding the new issue of our magazine (No. 3/2024). This May marks the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU. For twenty years now, Czech environmental law has been influenced by the system of European Union law. It is said that about 70% of it. Environmental protection as a common EU policy has been part of primary law only since 1987, when the Single European Act inserted a separate Title VII (Articles 130r, 130s, 130t) into the EEC Treaty, which became the legal basis for EEC environmental policy. Following the Lisbon Agreement adopted in 2007, the EU Treaty, together with the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, has formed the basis of the current environmental legislation in the EU’s primary law system since 2009.
In particular, the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) is the key legislation at the level of primary law. The key provisions of the TFEU in the field of environmental protection appear to be in particular Article 11, expressing the principle of integration, Article 13 (ensuring animal welfare) and in particular Articles 191–193 (Title XX – Common Environmental Policy). These provisions relate directly to environmental protection. However, the common agricultural and fisheries policy, the common trade policy and the common energy policy are also undoubtedly related policies. However, these do not primarily regulate environmental protection but only touch on it indirectly.
According to Article 191(1) TFEU, the Union’s environmental policy shall contribute to the pursuit of the following objectives:
– preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment,
– the protection of human health,
– the prudent and rational use of natural resources; and
– the promotion of measures at international level to address regional and
global environmental problems, and in particular to combat climate change. The EU is currently a signatory to a large number of international conventions relating to environmental protection, whether multilateral global conventions
or regional conventions, agreements and protocols to framework conventions.
This year the European Parliament and the Council adopted, among other things, two new secondary provisions of EU environmental law, which can be described with some exaggeration as key to the future development of the field of environmental law. Their transposition or adaptation will certainly be a difficult negotiation between the various ministerial ministries, particularly the ministries of justice, agriculture, local development and, of course, the environment.
Directive (EU) 2024/1203 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on the criminal protection of the environment and replacing Directives 2008/99/EC and 2009/123/EC is new legislation in the field of European environmental law as of this year. This Directive lays down minimum rules on the definition of criminal offences and penalties in order to protect the environment more effectively and to take measures to prevent and combat environmental crime and to effectively enforce Union environmental legislation.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration and amending Regulation (EU) 2022/869 was adopted to mitigate climate change and the impacts of natural disasters. It will help the EU meet its international environmental commitments and restore European nature. It delivers on the commitment defined in the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 for Europe to lead by example in halting biodiversity loss and restoring nature.
The main section of our magazine, ‘Science Topics’, contains the following articles:
Professor Wojciech Radecki introduces readers of models of the penal liability according to the Polish Nature Protection Law. Vojtěch Stejskal describes the new Directive (EU) 2024/1203 of 11 April 2024 on the protection of the environment through criminal law. Vít Halamíček focuses on selected environmental topics from a private law perspective. This is followed by two contributions on public international law. Dominika Andreska introduces the principle of equitable utilization in international water law, its development and its relation to the protection of international watercourses. Petr Vidlák describes the legal regulation of seabed mining beyond national jurisdiction.
Further, hopefully interesting reading can be found again in the regular sections devoted to new laws, peer reviewed books and, of course, in the sections mapping court case law (European Court of Human Rights, Supreme Administrative Court of Czech Republic).