19 Amendments of Michèle RIVASI related to 2020/2027(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas in recent years the European Parliament has adopted a proactive role in pushing for environmental liability regime for environmental and human right harms occurring in third countries; notably with the adoption of its resolution of 25 October 2016 on corporate liability for serious human rights abuses in third countries;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration and Principle 2 of the Rio Declaration recognise the sovereign right of states to exploit their own natural resources, but equally the responsibility, or obligation, not to cause damage to the environment of other states or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas human rights abuses and environmental harms have been observed in many developing countries, including expropriation of land from indigenous people and local communities, modern slavery, ecosystems destruction, water pollution or overexploitation of natural resources;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. 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 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. whereas human rights abuses and environmental harms are often deeply linked and need accordingly be tackled through an holistic approach;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that the global rise in environmental criminality is a growing threat to the achievement of the UN’s 2030 Agenda; calls for the recognition of the right to a healthy and sustainable environment at the UN level, which shall subsequently entail the corresponding duty to prosecute those who violate those rights;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. UPoints out that, while international environment law has evolved through the adoption of treaties and conventions, criminal law remain insufficient to prevent significant ecological harm; urges the EU to make the fight against environmental crime an overriding strategic political priority in international judicial cooperation and for the EU institutions and COPs, notably by promoting compliance with MEAs through the adoption of criminal sanctions, through exchanges of best practices and by promoting the enlargement of the scope of the International Criminal Court to cover criminal acts that amount to ecocide; calls on the Commission and the Member States to allocate appropriate financial and human resources to preventing, investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Stresses that the EU environmental liability regime shall respect policy coherence for development (PCD) and the do-no-harm principle;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Recalls that ex-post liability rules should complement ex-ante safety regulation and market-based instrument (such as environmental taxation) aiming at the reduction of environmental harm to fulfil the objectives of prevention and compensation;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Reiterates 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 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the barriers to holding companies liable for environmental harm, such as the regime of limited liability, insolvency, barriers to access to justice, latency and causal uncertainty; in particular, reminds that the liability mechanism often remains ineffective as “limited liability” enables de facto companies not to pay for the harm they have caused through their activities due to insolvency;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Recalls that the regulatory framework of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) is flawed, as the rules enshrined in Multilateral Environmental Agreements do not bind multinational corporations under international law; recalls that there is no EU legal instrument addressing the possibility of prosecuting European companies abroad for environmental crimes or activities causing environmental damage; therefore, stresses that the current system of reliance on national laws is likely to underestimate the gravity of corporate environmental damage; on this ground, calls on the EU and its Member States 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;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. NotesRecalls that under the current ELD, there is no room for imposing parent company liability; points out, however, that companies may abuse their limited liability to invest in hazardous industries through separate legal entities in order to externalise environmental costs; recalls the governance gap in global value chains; calls for the scope of strict liability to be extended to parent companies to avoid the risk of moral hazard, 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;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. CRecalls that insolvency seriously undermines the deterrent effect of the ELD to prevent environmental harm; reminds that so far, there is no formal duty to provide financial guarantees under the ELD; against this background, calls for the development of mandatory solvency guarantees to cover the ELD liabilities of companies in the event of insolvency and to search for an optimal mix between future EU legislation on mandatory environmental due diligence, and administrative, civil and criminal enforcement regimes aiming to address environmental harm;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Recalls that a major problem with violations of environmental regulations is that the probability of detection is low; against this background, calls for the introduction of punitive damage for environmental liability under the ELD; believes that corporate liability should be combined with individual liability to fight corporate crime effectively;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Recalls that a system of corporate liability for human rights abuses is currently being negotiated in the UN, within the UNHRC’s open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises concerning human rights (OEIGWG); but deplores that the Commission has no mandate from the Council to conduct negotiations on behalf of the EU concerning its participation in the OEIGWG; urges once more the EU and its Member States to engage actively and constructively in the process, with the view to adopt a binding and enforceable UN Treaty on business and human rights;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Underlines that international law has evolved to embrace new concepts such as “the Common heritage of humanity”, “Sustainable Development”, “Future Generations”; but stresses that there is no permanent international mechanism to monitor and address environmental damage/destruction that significantly and durably alter the global commons or ecosystem services; to this end, calls on the EU and its Member States to support a paradigm shift to include ecocide and the right of future generations in international environmental law;.