Expert questions timing of Government's EU environmental law review

Fiona Ross of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that policy stability is more important to UK industry than another regulatory review. A call for evidence on the impact of EU law on the environment will run until 12 August 2013, as part of the Government's wider review of the balance of power and competencies between the UK and EU.

"The Coalition Government has already questioned the level of environmental regulation in the UK as part of its 'Red Tape Challenge', and this consultation is the latest mechanism for reviewing EU-generated environmental and climate change measures," said Ross.

"However with the UK, along with much of the EU block, struggling with recessions, the timing of this review has to be questioned. Industry has repeatedly called for stability in policy and legislative measures, and there have been suggestions over the past year that implementing EU environmental and climate change legislation in full could in fact drive jobs and the economy, rather than hinder development and growth," she said.

The consultation exercise is being carried out jointly by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The departments have asked charities, think tanks, businesses and other experts for their views on whether EU legislation provides the right balance between protecting the environment and national economic interests. It questionswhether the UK could benefit from the EU taking more or less action on the environment and climate change and calls for responses on the EU's current powers with reference to benefits and disadvantages to specific sectors or the UK as a whole.

Feedback from the consultation will be incorporated into one of 32 reports which will be produced by various government departments as part of the wider 'balance of competencies' exercise, announced by Foreign Secretary William Hague last July. The reports will "contribute to a national debate", the Government said, but will not make specific policy recommendations.

In a written statement to Parliament, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said that the exercise would cover all the areas included in EU environmental legislation such as air quality, water quality, nature protection, chemicals and waste.

"Much of the UK's environment and climate change policy is now agreed at EU level, with comparatively few areas remaining exclusively within the competence of member states," he said.

"The resulting report is intended to be a comprehensive, thorough and detailed analysis of EU competence for environment and climate change and what this means for the UK. It will aid our understanding of the nature of our EU membership and will provide a constructive and serious contribution to the wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU," he said.