DOCUMENTS PRECEDING THE ADOPTION OF DIRECTIVE 2004/35/EC TRANSPOSED IN THE ROMANIAN LAW BY GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY ORDINANCE NO. 68/2007 ON ENVIRONMENTAL
DOCUMENTS PRECEDING THE ADOPTION OF DIRECTIVE 2004/35/EC TRANSPOSED IN THE ROMANIAN LAW BY GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY ORDINANCE NO. 68/2007 ON ENVIRONMENTAL

Summary/Abstract: The European legislation realized in 2004 one of the historical challenges of EU environmental legislation. The Community law has had long before the intention to regulate the legal regime of environmental damage, facing though many obstacles: the technical complexity of this task, the opposition of states and sectors affected by the system, including ideological factors and the supremacy of the precautionary principle in the area of environmental law. The regime proposed considers that the environmental liability is based on the “polluter pays” principle, but also on principles 13 and 16 of the Rio Declaration (1992) on Environment and Development which established, on one hand that subjects who pollute, should in principle bear the cost of pollution, and on the other hand, imposed an obligation on states, to develop the national law regarding liability for environmental damage and compensation for victims of pollution and environmental degradation. The Directive is the result of 15 years of attempts to change and adapt the liability regime to the specificity of environmental damage and to exploit developments in this context, especially in the prevention and remedying area; it is an attempt of “green revolution” of the tort liability system. By this normative act, the European Community has known for the first time in its history, a regulation dealing, in a horizontal and systemic manner, the problem of preventing and remedying the environmental damage. The Directive succeeds to establish reference points for the harmonization of the national legislation on measures for preventing and remedying environmental damage at EU level, ensuring a minimum level of legal and administrative rules, on the matter.

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