Advisory councils plea for fine tuning environmental quality norms on European level

MINA, SERV and SALV are asking government to adjust the environmental legislation to the European level. They specifically refer to the water framework directive, REACH, the regulation on biocidal products and plant protection. Together they plea for harmonizing the methodologies to outline the  polluting substances. The councils point at the difference between direct impact of normative regulation regarding new dangerous substances and the indirect effects through compulsory monitoring. When new norms face direct consequences, authorities should carefully balance between the need for general action (all polluters) or specific actions aimed at polluters exceeding the norms. Finally the councils formulate some remarks concerning the expansion of the Flemish substances list with 3 new ones.