OPENING SPEECHES

 

 

Pieter Verkerk

 

Good Morning ladies and gentlemen,

 

First of all, a special word of welcome to our Director General for the Environ­ment whose presence here, on behalf of the Environment Minister, underlines the importance of this Workshop.

 

Next, a warm welcome to all our guests who have responded to the invita­tion to take part in this Workshop. I should particularly like to welcome James Strock, the new Assistant Administrator for Enforcement of the EPA. From a number of recent experien­ces I think I can safely say that, in the future, we can count on continuation of the contacts between the EPA and the Ministry of Housing, Physi­cal Planning and Environment.

 

I am particularly pleased that we have been able to run this Workshop together. As the Organizing Committee, we have attempted to put together a program which reflects the state-of-the-art in the field of the enforcement of environ­men­tal legislation. I hope you agree that the choice of topics and speakers re­presents a wide-ranging mix of the subjects relevant to this Workshop. We have relied, to some extent, on experiences gained with the enforce­ment of envi­ron­mental legislation in the USA and in the Netherlands.

 

A first exchange of experiences in this field took place in the early eighties, as part of a Memorandum of Understan­ding between the Nether­lands Ministry of Housing, Physical Plan­ning and Environment and the American Environmental Protec­tion Agency. U.S. EPA staff visited the Nether­lands for a workshop on the same subject as part of a prac­tical training in the American approach to enforce­ment, reworking it to make it suitable for Dutch conditions. Two Dutch delegati­ons, comprising representatives of various tiers of govern­ment, attended work­shops in the United States and were very impressed by the American appro­ach to enforcement. Much was suitable for application in the Netherlands as well.

 

So I think I may conclude that in the enforcement field we have already learned a lot  from each other. But we are not there yet. In many areas, enforcement activities will have to be stepped up further, once the environmental measures we are planning to introdu­ce have taken shape. This will be a very demanding process for al those involved in enforce­ment.

 

The Netherlands has a long history in the environmental field. The first piece of legislation dates from the time of Napoleon, 1810, and was really the forerunner of the Nuisan­ce Act. The latter Act was indeed introduced to restrict or prevent danger, damage or nuisance caused by installations to those in the vicinity. Permits were the method adopted to enforce the regulations.

 

In most cases the implementary agency, and thus the enforce­ment agency, was the local authority. The Nuisance Act and its enforcement taught people in the Netherlands how things can work, but equally, what can go wrong if enforcement is inade­quate.

 

Alongside the Nuisance Act, a great many other pieces of environmental legisla­tion have been introduced in the Ne­therlands since the early seventies. Having learned by trial and error, enforcement started to be stepped up in the early eighties. In the first instance, chemical waste was the focus of attention. By now we have gained a great deal of expe­rience with this in the Netherlands.

 

At the moment we are considerably behind in some areas when it comes to the granting of permits and, certainly, the enforcement of environmental legislation.

 

We have learned a lot about this from our American colleagu­es at the Environ­mental Protection Agency. Fortunately, we will have the opportu­nity of showing you some of our activi­ties during this Workshop.

 

The aim of the Workshop, which is due to start shortly, is first of all to find out what the state-of-the-art is on the enforcement of environ­mental legislation in the various participating countries. But it is also the idea that we see how enforcement can be improved through the exchange of knowledge and ideas among international experts. This has been the underlying idea of the Organizing Committee in arran­ging the programme. And, fortunately, we were able to find experts from the United States and the Netherlands, along with experts from other countries, who were willing to exchange their know-how and experience.

 

The Workshop, we hope, will also offer countries whose enforcement is at a less advanced stage, a unique opportu­nity of gaining some valuable tips and experien­ce.

 

The Workshop will consist of papers on aspects of enforce­ment of envi­ronmental legislation, with the last afternoon being earmarked for participants to discuss issues freely among themselves.

 

The themes to be dealt with will be:

Theme 1.            Domestic enforcement programme strategies, tools and management systems, with an emphasis on imple­mentation.

Theme 2.            Domestic intergovernmental enforcement relati­onships.

Theme 3.            International transboundary pollution problems, focusing on enforce­ment of pesticide and hazardous waste import and export controls.

Theme 4.            Enforcement of International Agreements, e.g. CFC­'s and ocean dum­ping.

 

It is important that this first international workshop on the enforce­ment of environmental legislation produces good results. We are not out to reach interna­tional agreements. One of the general principles of enfor­cement is that we do not talk about it, we do it. I think it is a principle we would do well to bear in mind during this Workshop.

 

It is vital that we all try to gain as much as we can from the Workshop, by way of consolidating and deepening our further contacts.

 

If we do so, you as participants, and we as the Organizing Committee, that is the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment, can  count this Workshop a success.

 

We hope that the Workshop will provide you with a chance to exchange informa­ti­on and learn from each other's expe­rien­ces, and thus an oppor­tunity to explore new openings for the conti­nuing challenge of a better enforcement of environ­mental legislation.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I should like to leave it there and hand over to Mr. Entho­ven, who, on behalf of the Environ­ment Minister, will be performing the official opening and tal­king to you about Dutch environ­mental policy.