Projet de loi portant des dispositions diverses en matière d'environnement.
General information ¶
- Submitted by
- PS | SP the Di Rupo government
- Submission date
- April 3, 2014
- Official page
- Visit
- Status
- Adopted
- Requirement
- Simple
- Subjects
- EC Regulation administrative sanction protected species seizure of goods sustainable development dangerous substance environmental policy environmental protection environmental standard production standard penalty environmental monitoring
Voting ¶
- Voted to adopt
- Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB
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Discussion ¶
April 23, 2014 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)
Full source
Rapporteur Thérèse Snoy et d'Oppuers ⚙
This draft law containing various provisions on environmental matters includes two points.
First, amendments were made to the Act of 21 December 1998 on product standards. Specifically, these are changes aimed at increasing the capacity of the SPF inspection services in the context of their controls. Thus, it was discussed the possibility of placing seals on non-compliant or suspected non-compliance products. In addition, this chapter also lays down sanctions for breaches of regulations on the import and export of dangerous chemicals.
Second, two amendments were made to the Law of 12 July 1973 on the Conservation of Nature. The Law of 28 July 1981 on the CITES Convention on Protected Species. The other aims to allow for administrative sanctions for violations of the law on protected species; thus, specimens of protected species that would be captured could be entrusted to zoos or to legal or natural persons.
During the debate, I asked questions to the Secretary of State and asked him to clarify the consequences of these changes for the inspection practices. He replied to me that administrative sanctions and the possibility of placing seals facilitated the work while allowing the services not only to simply draw up minutes when finding the presence of illegal dangerous products in the establishments.
The bill was voted unanimously, but several members of the opposition complained of the difficulty of obtaining the quorum of presence yesterday, at noon.
On behalf of my group, I will simply express our satisfaction to see the sanctions regime and the capacity of your services to sanction anything that violates the standards of these products improve. I know that there are few agents there and they endured many difficulties in sanctioning offenses; often, the inspectors observed, drafted minutes, but the prosecutor's office had no possibility to proceed.
Therefore, in addition to the possibility of administrative sanctions, which was already a progress, we are very pleased with this new opportunity consisting in the authorisation to place seals, confiscate evidence, prevent items from being taken away, as well as being able to require the company to finance the storage of illegal and dangerous products. This is a long-awaited progress.
Of course, we can regret that these arrangements were taken late, but now they are taken. That is the essential.