Practice Exchange Forum

The page highlights sselected meetings, documents, websites, case studies and other activities are highlighted hereundertaken by the European Commission, Member State Government Authorities, Industry and others concerning the ongoing implementation of the ELD. We invite your additions, including meeting presentations and materials, documents, articles and more. Information may be sent to info@nrdonline.org.

Meetings

The Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group has been tracking environmental liability and related meetings since 2004. For a listing of meetings in the current year, see here.

European Commission

Listed below are reports and regulatory proposals of the European Commission concerning the EU Environmental Liability Directive. Additional documents of note -- prepared by government, industry or other organizations -- can be posted here upon request.

• Conference Materials from the 6th ELD Stakeholder Workshop - Review and Perspective of the Multi-Annual ELD Work Program - held 5 March 2019
• Conference Materials from th 5th ELD Stakeholder Workshop held 4 October 2017
• Multi-Annual Work Programme (MAWP) 2017 – 2020 "Making the Environmental Liability Directive more fit for purpose" The present version of the MAWP was endorsed by the government experts at the 17th ELD government experts meeting on 28th February 2017.
• Conference Materials from the 4th Stakeholder Conference - Drawing Lessofrom the ELD Evaluation Towards a Multi-Annual ELD Rolling Work Programme - held 24 May 2016.
• REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament under Article 18(2) of Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. This report was adopted on 14 April 2016.
• 3rd Stakeholder Conference 'Experience gained in the application of the Directive based on concrete ELD cases'. This report summarizes the discussions of the 26 November 2014 Stakeholder Workshop. The objective of the Workshop was to "enable an exchange of information and practical experience gathered in the application of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) between main stakeholders, experts and practitioners."
• 2nd Stakeholder Conference 'Evaluating the experience gained in the ELD Implementation. This report summarizes the discussions of the 11 June 2013 Commission Conference, which had two purposes relative to the ELD:to look into "(a) implementation and (b) review with the final aim of identifying strengths and weaknesses, in particular the areas needing to be improved".
• Stakeholder & Practitioner Workshop Implementation of the Environmental Liability Directive in the EU Report. This report summarizes the discussions of the 8 November 2011 Commission Workshop, which was intended to identify major "difficulties and obstacles for the implementation of the ELD", possible solutions and "create and/or foster a community of ELD stakeholders and practitioners".
• REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Under Article 14(2) of Directive 2004/35/CE on the environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage This Report was adopted by the European Commission on 12 October 2010.

Industry

Since 2004, the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group has worked to facilitate discussions on best practices related to the ongoing implementation of the ELD. Listed below are some Group activities related to ELD best practices.

• Tracking of ELD Legislation, Cases, Sites and Related Information. Since the 2004 passage of the ELD, the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group has been tracking and compiling all Member State legislation implementing the ELD in national law, as well as associated Member State guidance. For current information on a specific Member State status, contact us at info@nrdonline.org.


• Documents. The Group has also prepared numerous documents in an effort to foster the “reasonable, balanced and predictable” implementation of the ELD throughout the European Union. Some of the documents include: "The European Union Environmental Liability Directive -- Practical Suggestions to Ensure Sound Implementation" (February 2014); "European Union Environmental Liability Directive: An Update and Summary of Emerging Best Practices" (Re-issued January 2013); "White Paper: Environmental Liability Fund in the Context of the European Union Environmental Liability Directive" (December 2012); "Report: Survey of Industrial Companies -- Insurance and Other Financial Security Instruments and Remediation of Environmental Damages under the EU Environmental Liability Directive" (February 2010); "Implementation of the European Union Environmental Liability Directive: Summary of Guiding Principles and Recommended Best Practices" (July 2009); and "Industry Case Studies: An Examination of the European Union Environmental Liability Directive in Practice and Options Available to Member States" (February 2007 and Amended July 2009). For further information, contact us at info@NRDonline.org.


• ELD Best Practices Seminars. On an ongoing basis, work has been undertaken to develop "best practices" for key legal, administrative, technical and economic issues related to the implementation of the ELD in actual practice. Working with the European Commission, Member State Governmental Authorities and other experts, the Group has convened a series of "Best Practices Seminars" in order to identify, discuss and further expand these suggested best practices. The Group convened Seminars in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016. The next ELD Best Practice Seminar will be be held in May 2020.

Other

In addition to key government and industry websites (see Further Information), the website listed below provides resource information on remediation practice issues related to the ELD. Additional website resources are welcome here.

• REMEDE The REMEDE (Resource Equivalency Methods for Assessing Environmental Damage in the EU) Project, sponsored by the European Commission, was launched in October 2006 to "support Annex 2 of the Directive which lists different methodologies that can be used for this common framework". The final “Toolkit” report, released in 2008, identified methods to help determine the scale of remediation necessary to “offset” the environmental damage.