Activities of Heidi HAUTALA related to 2020/2027(INI)
Legal basis opinions (0)
Amendments (16)
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. Whereas ensuring the liability for environmental damage is key to making European businesses more sustainable over the long term; whereas such an achievement is closely interlinked through the development of related legislation on corporate due diligence, corporate social accountability and sustainable corporate governance;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
B c. Whereas there is an increasing number of cases where victims of pollution caused by subsidiaries of European companies try to bring environmental liability lawsuits against parent companies before courts in the EU;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas operator insolvency as a consequence of major accidents remains a problem in the EU; whereas shareholders may indeed use the corporate veil in order to abuse their limited liability to invest in hazardous industries through separate legal entities in order to externalise environmental costs; whereas it is unacceptable that public authorities and victims often have to bear significant financial costs derived from companies’ environmental misconducts;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 e (new)
Paragraph 9 e (new)
9 e. Considers that the framework should oblige companies to have an effective environmental reporting mechanism that should be transparent, accessible and trustworthy; Reiterates in this regard the need to strengthen standards in terms of mandatory disclosure of information by undertakings in the remit of the revision of Directive 2014/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on non-financial reporting, notably by including an enforcement and sanctioning mechanism to support the reporting requirements;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Calls for any operator benefitting from the carrying out of activities to be also liable, under the ELD, for any environmental damage or pollution caused by those activities;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11 c. Calls for the scope of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) and the definitions of environmental damage to be expanded to cover all damage to the environment, all types of environmental damage and damage caused by any occupational activity;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 j (new)
Paragraph 11 j (new)
11 j. Calls on the Commission to take action, including legal action where applicable, to ensure that the lengthy procedures in Member States deciding on liability for environmental burdens do not jeopardise the objective of high level of environmental protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment as enshrined in EU Charter of Fundamental Rights;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to assess whether it would be appropriate to introduce parental and chain liability for damage caused to human health and the environment20 ; _________________ 20 of Justice of 10 September 2009, Akzo Nobel NV and Others v CommissUnderlines the need to recognise the parental and chain liability of companies for the actions or omissions of their subsidiaries resulting in damage caused to human health and the environment, and the need for the implementation of a comprehensive monitoring system to provide competent authorities with an effective toolbox to monitor and enforce compliance with environmental and human rights requirements throughout their supply chains, particularly at local level, in line with/and in complement to the principle that EU undertakings have a duty of care and due diligence to prevent environmental harm caused by its subsidiaries active outside of the EU; underlines that such an enforcement system should allow NGOs, affected communities and victims to interact and proactively participate in the monitoring process, notably by submitting evidence and data on alleged violations of the European Communities, C-97/08 B, ECLI:EU:C:2009:536.environmental and human rights requirements; See, for instance, Judgment of the Court
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Calls on the Commission to establish a compulsory full coverage environmental liability insurance policy to cover all operators in the EU as a prerequisite for environmental permissions to solve the existing financial security problem of the companies, and to obligate each Member State to take all measures necessary to ensure environmental liability of all operators in its territory;
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Recalls that the Union should not merely promote a high level of environmental protection on its own territory, but should also take all possible action to prevent environmental damage anywhere in the world caused by companies based in Member States; recalls that environmental damage is particularly frequent and serious in developing countries due to factors such as less stringent legislative frameworks for environmental protection or the industrial and extractive activity of multinational corporations in those countries; Also calls on the Commission to study, in light of the transboundary harm principle, the possible legal avenues to ensure that EU transnational corporations be held liable for their environmentally harmful activities conducted in third States, even when those activities are not linked to products or services marketed in the EU territory; calls on the EU and its Member States, in any event, to provide for access to justice by allowing victims to take the parent company to Court in the EU, notably in a context where many host state legal systems are inadequate; Calls for the extension of criminal and civil liability for companies that have a clear link to an EU Member State and that have caused or contributed or are linked to environmental harm in third countries wherever they failed to act with due diligence and took all reasonable measures to prevent the damage;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 d (new)
Paragraph 16 d (new)
16 d. Calls on the Commission to incorporate the principles and objectives underpinning EU environmental policy and human rights safeguards into the environmental chapters of all EU trade agreements; in that regard calls the commission to ensure that environmental provisions are enforceable and subject to a general dispute settlement mechanism;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 c (new)
Paragraph 17 c (new)
17 c. Notes that the ECD merely states on the issue of liability of legal persons that Member States shall ensure that legal persons can be held liable for environmental crimes and that this liability shall not exclude criminal proceedings against natural persons who are perpetrators, inciters or accessories in the offences; Notes that the correct implementation thus does not require a criminal proceeding against an act established as criminal offence; Calls for the ECD to be amended to ensure that legal persons, or natural persons who are perpetrators, inciters or accessories in the offences be held liable and be heard in a criminal proceeding;
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18 c. Calls on the Commission to address environmental crimes in the relevant EU legislation including in the forthcoming mandatory due diligence legislation into global supply chains;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 d (new)
Paragraph 18 d (new)
18 d. Believes that there is a strong need for a mandatory, harmonised liability framework to be updated at Union level to contribute to the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate objectives, ensuring a level playing field for all business; In that regard believes that companies should conduct mandatory environment impact assessments that have full respect for human rights, environmental obligations and the protection of biodiversity throughout their supply chains and in full respect of existing international standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Multinational Enterprise and Social Policy, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, the UN Global Compact and the UN Convention against corruption;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 e (new)
Paragraph 18 e (new)
18 e. Stresses the importance of independent auditors to ensure that businesses behave in an environmentally sustainable way; calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage European companies to regularly conduct independent environmental audits; suggests that Recommendation 2001/331 which provides in detail how environmental inspections should be conducted should be transposed into a binding document or regulation;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 g (new)
Paragraph 18 g (new)
18 g. Stresses that ensuring the environmental liability of companies is key in making corporate governance more sustainable; considers in this regard that the upcoming EU legislation on company directors’ duties should compel companies into defining a business sustainability strategy that is aligned with planetary boundaries, in particular by requiring decarbonisation by 2050 and by preventing corporate contribution to biodiversity loss; also calls for a liability for direct and indirect environmental damages;