Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
EEC LEGISLATION CONTROLLING DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES: LEGAL ODYSSEY OR UNCHARTERED VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY?
L. D. Guruswamy
LL.B., Ph.D., Lecturer in Law, University of Durham.
INTRODUCTION
Modern man has produced about four million chemical compounds of which about 50,000 are utilized in industry and technology.1 Some of these are dangerous. The need to control pollution caused to the aquatic environment2 by dangerous substances was strongly impressed upon the First Action Programme of the EEC3 and firmly underlined in its Second Action Programme.4 In their Resolution of 7th February 19835 adopting the Third Action Programme the Council confirmed their commitment to this sphere of pollution control by drawing attention to the particular importance of those parts of the Programme dealing with the implementation of the Directive of 4th May 1976 “on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community” (the Framework Directive).6 This Framework Directive was a piece of enabling legislation which could also be described as a “parent” Directive. While it embodied the principles upon which dangerous substances were to be controlled, many of these principles would become obligatory and acquire regulatory force only when implemented by additional Directives dealing with the specific substances to be controlled. Such
1 Communication from the Commission to the Council on dangerous substances which might be included in List I of Council Directive 76/464/EEC. OJ No. C 176, 14.7.82, p. 5; see also “Noxious effects of dangerous substances in the aquatic environment”, Study for Commission of the EEC by Biokon Aps., Copenhagen, ENV/588/76, Sept. 1976.
2 By the “aquatic environment” the Council Directive of 4th May 1976 on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community (the Framework Directive) includes inland surface water, territorial waters, internal coastal waters and ground water of Member States. See Art. I. Directive 76/464/EEC. OJ No. L 129, 18.5.76, at p. 24.
3 Declaration of the Council of the European Communities and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, of 22nd November 1973 on the programme of action of the European Communities on the environment, OJ No. C 112, 20.12.73, p. 1.
4 Resolution of the Council of the European Communities and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council of 17th May 1977 on the continuation and implementation of a European Community policy and action programme on the environment, OJ No. C 139, 13.6.77, p. 1.
5 Resolution of the Council of the European Communities and of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, of 7th February 1983 on the continuation and implementation of a European Community policy and action programme on the environment (1982 to 1986), OJ No. C 46, 17.2.83, p. 1 at 2.
6 Vide fn. 2.
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