European Environment Committee to debate EMAS

Commission proposals for an eco-management and audit scheme (EMASⁱ) do not go far enough, says Rapporteur Linda McAvan (Party of European Socialists, UK). The MEP has put forward several amendments in order to attract more organisations to the scheme without compromising its “environmental integrity”. Her amendments include ensuring that the definitions of EMAS and the international ISO 14001 eco-management standard are aligned. Ms McAvan argues that ISO 14001 is far more popular than the EU scheme, and that it should therefore be made easier for companies to move from ISO to EMAS. The UK MEP is also against the establishment of three-yearly reports on environmental performance in addition to the existing obligatory annual report. MEPs briefly discussed the issue in the Environment Committee earlier this month, and most seemed supportive of the Rapporteur’s Draft Report.