The new Office of Environmental Enforcement is primed to take action against those who flout their environmental responsibilities, the director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said yesterday.
Dr Mary Kelly described the enforcement office, which was established under the auspices of the EPA, as an effective operating unit with enhanced powers to act. "The environment is no longer a soft target," she said.
Speaking at the final session of a major international environmental conference in Dublin, she stressed the need for strong legislative powers to tackle environmental offenders as "good policies are only as effective as their enforcement".
The conference called on EU environment ministers to prioritise the environment on Europe's political agenda, and move to close the "widening gap between economic expansion and environmental sustainability".
In her closing speech Dr Kelly urged leaders across the political, business and environmental spectrum to ensure that the environment's resources would not be dissipated to advance economic development.
"Economic growth is placing severe pressures on our environment," she said, adding that the challenge was to achieve a balance between competitiveness and sustaining an environment that protected people's health and well-being.
"The cost of not meeting this challenge is enormous and impacts on every member of our 25-country union," Dr Kelly declared. The issue is expected to be addressed at the EU council of environment ministers when they meet in June.
"As we stand on the threshold of a new Europe, we have an opportunity to re-evaluate our collective priorities," she went on. "We have a rich future ahead of us, once we don't squander our most important environmental assets."
She welcomed the opportunity for enhanced co-operation and pooled knowledge that would follow today's accession of 10 new member-states, including greater consistency in environmental data-monitoring.
"Environmental information is not always delivered to policy-makers and the public in a way that can make the necessary impact. This can result in a lost opportunity to steer policy and behavioural change towards the betterment of the environment," she said.
Referring to overprescriptive monitoring requirements as outdated, Dr Kelly said the future lay in developing enhanced techniques and procedures for information flow that would minimise the time-lag between knowledge and action.
The Bridging the Gap conference, which ran over three days, discussed topics as diverse as climate change, environment and human health, biodiversity and land use, and co-operation in developing better monitoring and research technologies.
Experts addressed the need for early-warning signals for emerging environmental risks and stressed the importance of bridging the communications gap between the scientific community, policy-makers and the public.
The conference heard contributions from the European Commission, the UN Environment Programme, the European Environment Agency, OECD, the World Health Organisation among others.
