THE IMPLICATIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION ON THE ENERGY SECTOR - A PROPOSAL OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN GREECE

摘要

It is widely recognized today that integration of environmental considerations into other policies "is no longer an option but an obligation". According to recent Council decisions, at its Cardiff Summit, environment will have to be considered by all European Union policies. In responding to that obligation, as outlined in the relevant Guidelines, Member States should develop strategies in subject areas such as the single market and industry, development and trade policies, agenda 2000, e.t.c., incorporating environmental protection as one of the priorities along with the principles of sustainable development. This process of integration appears to intensify a model of development where economic and social goals are intregrated with environmental ones and which is likely to have profound implications for the business- government relationship in all advanced societies. Recognizing this, the industrial sector and consequently the electricity industry, which is of our particular interest, will have to become increasingly active, in the environmental policy domain and adopt its corporate approaches using instruments which will facilitate this process of integration. This paper analyses the impacts of environmental regulations, in pursuit of the above objectives, in order to promote and improve its effective implementation, an area which constitutes one of the fundamental instruments to achieve integration of enviromental consideration in the whole management plan of the company. In this analysis factors affecting the compliance are considered along with country particularities, concerning the different institutions involved having the legal system as a background. The paper investigates the coherence between three significant environmental regulations namely the Council Directive 96/61/EC, the Council Regulation 1836/93/EC and the Council Directive 97/11, which are in the phase of harmonization in the Greek legislative system. The subject of the investigation is their internal consistency from the following point of view: to what extend do they contain common elements conflicting and unclear provisions that will assist or creat difficulties accordingly, to their administrative application. The paper does not contain any assessement of the provisions of the Directives from the legislation policy view. It provides the basis for decisions on enviromental management as well as puts forward specific proposals for the adoption of a common more integrated approach compared to the implementation of the individual elements of each Directive alone. The essential requirements of the Directives as well as their compatibility with Community legislation will not be altered from this common approach but on the contrary, it is believed that the end result as well as increased cohesion of these instruments from the application of these proposals will be an improvement of what each Directive can deliver, when applying on each own. The paper concludes that improvements will be achieved in the following areas: greater level of environmental assurance, reduced resources committed to compliance and auditing, without compromizing the extend of these processes and finally more timely and coherent information flow to the public, to the regulators and to the competent bodies.