Environmental liability : enforcement, remedial measures and environmental damages in the scope of the European Commission's White Paper

Abstract

The term "environmental liabilities" crops up in many discussions of environmental issues. Yet there is much confusion about the term. Often, "environmental liabilities" is used to refer to the potential for fines, penalties, and jail terms for violations of environmental laws. "Environmental liabilities" also frequently serves as shorthand to refer to the clean-up obligations under the state laws for contaminated sites. Another common usage is to label the costs involved in complying with regulations as "environmental liabilities." In contrast, when companies perform or commission "environmental liability" assessments, they want to know their exposure to potential environmental liabilities even when they are in complete compliance with regulatory standards. Clearly, "environmental liability" is an umbrella term. The following pages present a brief definition of the term and describe the major types of environmental liabilities in order to establish a framework for reviewing approaches and tools identified for expressing these liabilities in monetary terms. Respecting the need of the Community in the field of environmental protection the Commission took the first concrete step and adopted the White Paper on the future EU Directive on environmental liability, where it established a structured Community environmental liability regime ensuring that the persons causing environmental damage would be held liable.