Archive for August, 2005
COMMON FORUM NEWS NR. 4
Friday, August 5th, 2005There is good news concerning the COMMON FORUM secretariat, the Commission started an internet consultation on the Soil thematic strategy and dates of important meetings are approaching ( International Commitee on Contaminated Land 29/30 september in Paris and CONSOIL 3/6 october in Bordeaux). Many good reasons for COMMON FORUM NEWS 4. Please note my urgent questions at the end of this mail.
THE COMMON FORUM SECRETARIAT
In Vienna (12/13 may) we decided to go on with the secretariat as a multinational project. The NL will be the contractholder and the Dutch Ministry did send a letter to all COMMON FORUM country representatives with the question to consider the possibilities of sponsoring the project. I have some information that some countries agreed to sponsor but I do not have a complete overview for the moment. Miech de Steenwinkel (VROM/NL) is handling this, and its better to keep it that way, to keep a clear distinction between the business of the contractor and my own work as a COMMON FORUM secretary. Nevertheless if your country still has not answered the letter from the Dutch Ministry please do so. The good news is that the Dutch Ministry has given me the green light to start now the with the COMMON FORUM secretariat project according to the project description and costs. The COMMON FORUM country representatives received the project description by email on 29/04/05.
UNEXCAVATED CONTAMINATED SOIL AS WASTE
In Vienna COMMON FORUM suggested that a clear message from the Commission that the Waste Framework Directive is “under construction or repair concerning the contaminated soil issue” would help to discourage parties from going to court in order to achieve certain goals based on the current interim situation. There has been some discussion about whether COMMON FORUM should write a letter to DGENV to clarify their position concerning the repair process. Some COMMON FORUM members however felt that this letter may not be very helpful and may stimulate wrong ideas in some interest groups. An informal discussion after the meeting with Bernhard Berger gave me the impression that sending a letter by COMMON FORUM to stimulate the Commission to be clear about its activities concerning the “repair” of the unexcavated contaminated soil is waste” court rule, is not likely to be very helpful. After all memberstates have expressed their views via their formal representatives, and the Commission is aware of the problem. Up till now no interest group has misused the current interim situation. My question: Should we still draft a letter and what should be in it?
NICOLE WORKSHOPS
NICOLE invited me to participate in their workshop on ecological risk assessment in Stockholm 16/17 june . I presented current activities of COMMON FORUM and the views of CARACAS and CLARINET concerning risk assessment. There were many interesting presentations. Paul Bardos (NICOLE’s information manager) prepared a full report of the workshop, which I will distribute as soon as I receive it . It will also be available at the NICOLE website (and perhaps EUGRIS). One of the important topics for further discussion was exchange of information about current practice and experience in ecological risk assessment and harmonization. JRC (Ispra) is going on with their HERACLES project which may serve as a home base for EU-wide harmonization discussions. Most NICOLE workshop participants agreed that there are large benefits from harmonisation, especially concerning the basic data and toxicological endpoints in risk assessment, but there are also parts linked to local and regional decision making which cannot be harmonized throughout Europe. A toolbox approach may result in the best of both worlds, giving support to the decision makers (a common well documented toolbox) while flexibility is conserved, because one may choose between a number of different methods ( the individual tools). Monitoring the works of HERACLES and participating in the discussions seems important for COMMON FORUM as we are all somehow involved in human health and ecological risk assessment of contaminated land.
NICOLE also announced the next workshop which will be held in Sardinia 1/2 december 2005. The workshop will be very interesting for COMMON FORUM because it will discuss the impact of the many existing and new (soil framework directive) legal obligations from EU on national, local and industrial contaminated land policy and practice. NICOLE will make their own analysis from the industry and service providers perspective, and asked whether the “EU memberstates policy makers” part could be taken up by COMMON FORUM.
NICOLE asked me to organize a session in this workshop about impacts on national policies, so I am looking for volunteers and speakers for this session. We may also use the opportunity provided by NICOLE to organize the next COMMON FORUM meeting in Sardinia, annex to the NICOLE workshop. Such a meeting can be short and can focus on conclusions concerning the COMMON FORUM position and some internal COMMON FORUM affairs. The discussions needed to reach conclusions can be held at the NICOLE workshop, due to the large common interest in the subject of the workshop.
INTERNET CONSULTATION & EU SOIL STRATEGY
The internet consultation about the EU soil strategy just started, see: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/soil/index.htm
There are two questionnaires, one for citizens and one for experts and organisations. This means that COMMON FORUM members could fill in three questionnaires because we are all citizens and experts and COMMON FORUM is also an organisation. However the last position calls for some discussion and reflexion. Most COMMON FORUM members are from national Ministries or Agencies, so we have to answer the question whether COMMON FORUM can have a common view, independent of and maybe in conflict with the views of the national governments. While you think about this I will try to formulate answers to the questions which in my opinion reflect the general views of COMMON FORUM . I will send the draft answers for your comments and approval.
The current ideas of the commission concerning Soil Framework Directive and Soil communication are quite similar to the ones presented by Bernhard Berger at our last meeting. I have a file with slides from a Commission presentation given at 30 june. The slides were not intended by the commission to be passed outside Government or Govt Agencies in the Member States, but in case you belong to this category and have missed the presentation I can mail you a copy (600Kb).
MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE ON CONTAMINATED LAND ( former AD HOC working group)
The International Commitee on Contaminated Land will meet in Paris 29/30 september hoc group meeting in Paris will take part in September 29 - 30. suggested subjects;
• The management of excavated contaminated soil (treated or non treated)
• The use of site specific risk assessment and the in situ management of contaminated soil in the redevelopment of contaminated sites.
• Financing: Polluter Pay Principal and insurance issues
I noticed that many COMMON FORUM members will be present at this meeting, so this is a good opportunity for informal COMMON FORUM networking. I intend to give a short presentation about the current status of COMMON FORUM and our role in the EU soil strategy discussion.
CONSOIL
The CONSOIL conference in Bordeaux offers two opportunities for COMMON FORUM discussion:
1] A special session ( Session 12, on Thursday 6 october from 9 till 10.30) organised according to the CONSOIL programme by the French Ministry of Environment, COMMON FORUM and ad Hoc Group
2] An opportunity to meet during the free Wednesday afternoon in the conference building.
1] The special session
This session is of course not the place for internal COMMON FORUM discussions, but can be used to show the role of COMMON FORUM in the contaminated land policy development in Europe. In Vienna we proposed an interesting theme for the session, in view of upcoming EU regulations and harmonisation of definitions and risk assessment.
The programme can look as follows:
A] Introductions:
Short introductions about what and who is common forum and the former ad hoc group. A representative from the French Ministry can be invited to give his view on the advantages of international networks, and senior members of COMMON FORUM and the (former ad hoc) international committee could present an overview of former statements
B] Discussion: At the Vienna COMMON FORUM meeting we had an idea to demonstrate that the way contaminated land regulations are framed has important consequences for public perception and overal performance of contaminated land programs. Paul Nathanail (CABERNET) suggested that this could be done by presenting single case which will be dealt with by different countries (UK, Flanders, Hungary and France for instance). Paul offered to introduce the case. But to my opinion this plan is too ambitious. We could focus the discussion on the definition of “contaminated site”. Much of the consequences of the regulations for public perception and social economic consequences ( land value for instance) center around how terms like contamination ( emissions and spills entering the soil, a process), contamination as a description of (bad ) soil satus, and contaminated sites ( a clearly defined spatial area which may require some action because of the contamination) are defined and used in practice in the different countries. One of the big challenges for EU soil policy is to strive for common definitions without affecting too much the diversity in decision making among those memberstates which have policies in place. We can have this discussion without presenting a single common case that has to be assessed beforehand. I do not think we have the time to perform a comparative desk study before CONSOIL.
As an alternative I see a number of other topics in relation to upcoming EU policies
* funding of orphan sites,
* the national contaminated sites inventories
* the specific need for implementing the WFD and the Groundwater Daughter Directive,
2] The wednesday afternoon meeting
In this meeting we can discuss some internal COMMON FORUM affairs and possible positions in the EU soil policy package discussion. The agenda may contain the following topics
*plans of the secretariat and current status of financial support
*improving the impact assessment of EU policy concerning contaminated land and the estimation of the number of contaminated sites in Memberstates
* date, location and agenda of the next COMMON FORUM meeting ( see also below)
NEXT COMMON FORUM MEETING
In Vienna we decided that depending on the development of EU soil policy a two day meeting of COMMON FORUM may be necessary either in November 2005 or Spring 2006. Hungary offered to investigate possibilties to host this meeting. There is now a new opportunity for a meeting in Sardinia overlapping with and partly annex to the NICOLE workshop. I have to check with the NICOLE organization if such a joint venture is feasible and what the costs are. In any case COMMON FORUM members do not have to pay a fee to attend a NICOLE workshop.
IN SUMMARY, MY URGENT QUESTIONS TO YOU ARE
1] Do we really need to send a letter about the unexcavated contaminated soil = waste issue and what should be mentioned in this letter
2] Who will help me fill the “policymaker “session at the NICOLE workshop in Sardinia?
3] Should there be a COMMON FORUM answer to the questionnaire of the Soil thematic strategy Internet consultation
4] What are your ideas for the special session at CONSOIL and the agenda for the Wednesday afternoon COMMON FORUM meeting during CONSOIL
5] The next COMMON FORUM meeting. Sardinia ?