MEPs seek to armour-plate toxic substances bill

The 13 substances in question are nasty stuff used in pesticides and heavy industry, many of which have been regulated at EU member state level since the 1970s. Mass cadmium poisoning in Japan in 1950 led to an outbreak of "itai-itai" disease, with "itai" coming from the Japanese for "scream" as the illness causes extreme joint-ache. Mercury build up in fish can be dangerous to unborn babies.

MEPs in the environment committee will vote on their first draft of the bill on 27 March with their text set to be endorsed in a plenary session vote in April before EU states take their first look at the law toward the end of the German EU presidency in June. If all goes well, the bill could become law in 2008.

But the commission is already worried about the number of amendments introduced under the stewardship of French liberal MEP Anne Laperrouze, with some EU officials saying MEPs could steer the directive into "conciliation" - a complex dispute-settling mechanism between EU states and deputies that could drag out the process into 2009.

"Parliament has been very creative, but a lot of the amendments are tactical and may well not get a majority," a European Commission expert told EUobserver, breaking down the proposed changes into three main categories of emissions regulation; the substance list itself and measurement techniques.

Some MEPs believe the bill should tackle how to stop harmful emissions actually getting into the water, instead of just monitoring toxicity levels. About 50 amendments seek to add "emerging pollutants" such as medical byproducts into the list while the last group aims to change commission ideas on "transitional area" measuring.

Currently some EU states measure pollutants at the spot where effluent leaves a factory where concentration is highest. Others measure in the "transitional area" where effluent mixes with river water and others downstream where effluent is the most diluted - the commission says the latter option is the best measure of harm, MEPs like the middle choice.

Will polluters land in jail?

Going through the EU's law-making machine in parallel with the priority substance bill, the commission on 9 February also proposed a new law to set minimum EU criminal penalties for environmental offences, suggesting fines and jail sentences for nine sets of offences in the range of €300,000 to €1.5 million and one to 10 years' jail.

One of the offences, which relates to "unlawful emission" of substances into "air, water or soil" which are "likely to cause or do cause" harm to people or aquatic creatures, dovetails with the priority substance bill, which sets out what is lawful and unlawful in this sphere in terms of community law.

EU member states have begun a "preliminary discussion" on the environmental crimes bill which could become EU law in 2009 and be transposed into EU member states' national legislatures a further 18 months down the line. But the EU officials responsible for drafting the law do not hold out much hope of success.

"It's a question of competency, about how far the EU can go. It's very political and I'm afraid EU states will try to agree to as little as possible in this field," another commission official said, with EU states - especially the UK - holding national criminal law sacrosanct from EU influence in the past.