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The European Parliament has this week been holding hearings with the new Commissioners-designate and some of them have had a bumpy ride. However, Slovenian Environment Commissioner-designate Janez Potocnik gave a confident and polished performance during which he outlined his priorities for the environment:
Resource efficiency is high on his agenda. He said there was a need to break the link between growth and resource use – something that is already second nature to many in business.
When asked if he would be prepared to bring in binding targets in this area, by reducing resource consumption in absolute terms, he referred to the instruments already in place – eco-design, waste prevention, sustainable production and consumption – and said that care would be needed to ensure that targets did not cause distortion or shift the burden. However he would consider targets if they helped reduce environmental impact, but he saw this more of a question of ‘how’ rather than ‘how much’.
Several MEPs asked about improving Implementation, with one claiming the Commission’s enforcement procedures were too legalistic. Potocnik replied that it was his duty to enforce laws that they had all adopted but he would also support Member States. He said he would have no problem ‘pointing the finger’ at his native Slovenia because it would be in the interest of the Slovenian people to do so.
Another MEP mentioned the 2009 report on problems of implementation of Waste legislation and wantedassurance that this would be at the top of the Commissioner’s agenda. Would he for example agree to a moratorium on new legislation until this issue had been settled? Potocnik replied that this was high up his agenda but he didn’t think a moratorium would help. He wanted to move to ‘smarter’, simplified legislation, not to lower the ambition, but to make laws easier to implement.
Asked whether he preferred market solutions over legislation, Potocnik said that each had its place and a holistic approach was needed. For instance, in his previous role in ITRE (Committee on Industry, Research and Energy) he had supported the stricter limits on CO2 and cars, but had combined this with a helping hand to the car industry in terms of R&D, Public Private Partnerships etc.
Asked how he would counter attempts to use the economic crisis to slow down implementation and those who argued they could not afford to invest in the environment due to pressure on jobs, he replied that by investing in the environment you were putting jobs first and that businesses that moved to the green economy first would be the winners.
With regard to REACH, Potocnik said he was unhappy that so few substances appeared on the candidate list, but he said that all agencies needed time and support to get going and he would ensure they had the means to do their task.
Asked about the possibility of a 7th Environmental Action Programme (EAP), Potocnik said that the 6th EAP and currently being evaluated and the EEA report on the state of the environment was awaited. Although he could not commit to a 7th EAP, it would be a good platform for discussion of some of the key issues in the 2020 agenda.
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