Updated on: 12/04/2024
The European citizens’ initiative Creation of a European Environment Authority calls for setting up a central EU body that would have the powers to take administrative decisions that are binding on Member States and businesses whenever the environmental impact of their activities extends beyond national borders and occurs at the EU level. The initiative is led by Hungarian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Anna Donáth from the Renew Europe group. Rebeka Hevesi is a lawyer specialised in EU law and international dispute resolution and is Anna Donáth’s legal advisor. She is also the substitute representative of this European citizens’ initiative.
Q: What would be the difference between the European Environment Authority that you aim to create and the current European Environmental Agency, and why do you think setting up this new body is important for European citizens?
Rebeka Hevesi: We are all really concerned about environmental matters, and MEP Anna Donáth had many experiences with cross-border environmental impact and cross-border pollution, which were not handled and managed properly by the national authorities.
We thought that we should create a European authority which can issue legally binding decisions and force countries to comply with European and national environmental regulations. Whereas the existing European Environment Agency is a really good institution, it can only issue recommendations and “soft law”. As the European Union is deeply engaged in the green agenda, we believe we need an authority that can issue legally binding decisions and can sanction cross-border polluters, if the environmental effect appears at EU level.
Tweet from Anna Júlia Donáth: The Sajó/Slanaá (a Slovak-Hungarian river) has been dead for weeks on the Slovak side. Dead because of the pollution from a mine in Slovakia that broke more than three months ago.
MEP Anna Donáth is the main organizer of this European citizens’ initiative and she had direct experience with cross-border pollution when the river Sajó (Slaná in Slovak), which crosses from Slovakia into Hungary, was polluted because of toxic substances that leaked into it. She raised her voice against this cross-border pollution which caused serious environmental damage that was not managed in a timely and efficient manner by the national authorities. That is what prompted the idea to create a European Environment Authority which would be a supranational environmental institution, and would be able to sanction the polluters and to enforce European and national environmental rules in the cases where the national authorities are unable or unwilling to act in time.
Tweet from Anna Júlia Donáth: What’s currently happening is a tragic symbole of the fact that nature conservation and protection cannot be an exclusively national issue in the 21st century. What is happening to the Sajó is pan-European issue, and we must therefore act together.
The case of that river Sajó/Slaná was a European Union matter because it concerned Hungary and Slovakia, two EU Member States. But we see there is a recurring problem everywhere in the European Union, there is cross-border pollution and there are transboundary environmental effects which disregard national borders and are not handled properly or in a timely manner by national authorities either. Sometimes, these national authorities are under governmental influence and may be trying to protect big multinational companies and interests, which are some of the main polluters in the EU, and they are unable to act due to their lack of knowledge or expertise in the most cutting edge fields of environmental law.
We believe that the national authorities would need some extra help from a European Environment Agency, because pollution and environmental impact disregard national borders.
Examples of environmental impacts and pollution at EU level where the European Environment Authority could take action include the following:
Transboundary air pollution
Water pollution
Marine pollution
Soil contamination
Noise pollution
Transboundary waste management
Climate Change
*Extract from the European citizens' initiative registration request.*
Q: What were the main challenges for you in the registration process?
Rebeka Hevesi: I'm a lawyer and I'm familiar and I have expertise in EU law, but I had never registered a European citizens’ initiative before. I went through the Regulation, went through the Forum, and all the recommendations on how to do this, and we managed to register the initiative on the first attempt!
The Forum was very useful because there are many questions that are being answered either by the experts from the Forum or from other organisers. I went through all these questions and checked the material available on the Forum such as the video explaining in detail how you should draft your request. When the Initiative was successfully registered, the ECI Forum team contacted us to offer us a Welcome Call, which was an opportunity to answer any questions I may have regarding the next steps in signature collection and in organising the campaign across the EU.
I would definitely recommend for a beginner who intends to submit a registration request to go through the Forum and check the material and the regulations regarding the European citizens’ initiative because that's the best source to learn and understand how the ECI process works.
On behalf of Anna, I really encourage everybody to sign our initiative because we really need a strong, independent, supranational European Environment Authority, which would help and complement national environmental authorities and tasks, help prevent environmental pollution at the EU level and enforce European citizens' right to a healthy environment.
Take action now!
The campaign runs until January 2025, and EU citizens are eligible to sign ECI can check out the initiative’s official page and sign this initiative at: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2023/000011_en
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