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11.3.
Process of enforcement of environmental
legislation
11.3.1. Approaches to elaboration of legal documents
First, environ mental law contains regulations that focus on
quantifiable and stationary sources of pollution. These are mainly
standards for the companies that operate different stationary
industrial (technological) equipment. Since the operation of such
equipment leaves a more or less extensive environ mental impact,
they are called polluting activities. State exercises control over
the polluting activities: they are permitted only if the company
previously obtained a relevant permit from a competent national
environ mental authority. Moreover, the law requires the competent
national environ mental authority to issue such a permit on condition
that the emissions of pollutants into the environ ment would be
maximally reduced.
Second, environ mental law includes mandatory regulations,
which require the state to take complex steps to achieve certain
Environmental quality
is affected by different
factors – pollution,
excessive deforestation,
land cultivation and
unreasonable fertilisation,
the use of substances
or organisms foreign to
the natural environment.
To encompass all these
and other factors,
several approaches and
measures are used in the
legal regulation of envi‑
ronmental protection.
11. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: LEGISLATION, POLICIES, INSTITUTIONS
243
objectives defined by law. For example, EU legislation requires
from the new Member States that water in their natural and
artificial water bodies must be in good condition by 2015. The water
condition is defined as good if it does not endanger the survival of
diverse aquatic ecosystems even if the effects of human activities
can be detected. This kind of regulation is also referred to as the
ecosystem approach. The objectives in other environ mental areas
are set forth in a similar way: to mitigate climate change and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to facilitate the removal
and recycling of waste (for example, packaging waste recovery
standards).
Third, there are also regulations for various state and local
government decision-making processes. For example, to decide on
where to locate a waste disposal landfill, a special procedure has
to be carried out – the environ mental impact assessment for this
land fill. During this process, the potential impact is assessed and
actions for the reduction of this impact are planned, and alternative
landfill sites are ascertained. A decision on locating the landfill at
a particular site can be taken only after the environ mental impact
assess ment. Such regulation is necessary in order to ensure that
every decision, whose implementation may affect the environ ment,
would be taken on the basis of sufficient information regarding its
possible impact on the environ ment, to take into account environ-
mental considerations in addition to the economic and social
ones, to make such decision-making transparent and to facilitate
the interested public to become involved in the decision-making
process and influence it, in particular the residents in the vicinity
of the planned object who may be directly affected by the project in
question.
All three approaches are used in the normative regulation of
environ mental protection. However, going back to the beginnings
of environ mental laws, it is possible to trace their changes and
Development s over time. Initially, environ mental legislation was
focused on controlling the pollution from industrial enterprises.
Then it became clear that other economic activities also degrade
the environ ment – agricultural and forestry practices, uncontrolled
use of chemical substances and products, construction works at
environ mentally sensitive areas, such as the sea coast and river
banks and lake shores. Therefore, the legislature began to set forth
the objectives to be attained within specified periods of time and to
require complex measures – gathering and analysis of information
on the actual situation of the environ ment, planning and execution
of measures required for the attainment of objectives set. Moreover,
such a planning process should be transparent, involving the
community as well.
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