At last, a new Environment
code in
France
At last, a new Environment
code in
France
Whereas the Environment code " Legislative Part" had been announced for a long time, it was finally published the 21st of September, 2000 in the bulletin issued by the French Republic giving details of laws and official announcements.
This code covers the great majority of the laws promulgated till now grouping them together in a same document standardized at the level of the redaction and sometimes completed.
This Environment code is composed of six books. Each book is divided into title and each title into chapter.
Below is the composition of the books:
BOOK 1 - Common arrangements
BOOK 2 - Physical Environment
BOOK 3 - Natural areas
BOOK 4 - Faun and flora
BOOK 5 - The risks, nuisances and the prevention of the pollutions
BOOK 6 - Applicable arrangements in New-Caledonia, in the French Polynesia, in Wallis and Futuna, in the French austral and antarctic lands and in Mayotte.
Finally, a Code for the Environment
I- A long and accurate work
Contrary to the Labor Regulations, the Town Planning Law, the Construction Code, the Civil or Penal Code, the Customs Code, the Taxation Code, etc…, this regulation never improved, that is to say that it staid laws or decrees creating a heterogeneous unity and often not clear, almost hard to put into practice. At the time of the application, it was not so easy to be sure that the all applicable statutory arsenal had been considered. The specialists finally managed to deal with the different types of problems presented but, on the other hand, the casual users often have difficulties to catch the link between each field.
It'll soon be 10 years since the Environment code was in mind and almost 8 years that the work of synthesis started. All this motivation resulted in the publication in the J.O the 21st of September, 2000, of the decree of the 18th of September, 2000 in relation with the Legislative Part (Articles L) of this code.
In six books and a little more than 950 articles, 39 laws had been resumed in one and only one document. It allows an easier understanding, trying to give a certain coherence to all this legislation. The texts grouped together extend over a period of time of 20 years. In fact, the redaction of the texts started in 1930 with those concerning the protection of the natural monuments and the artistic, historic, scientific, legendary and picturesque sites. And, in 2000, it was still going on with the law of the 26th of July as far as hunting is concerned.
II- A clear structure
The six books are made up as follow:
The 1st book deals with the common arrangements and in particular with three important sections relative to the information of the citizens, their involvement and the institutions playing a part in the environmental domain such as the County Commission and the Regional Council of the Environment, the ADEME, the public interest groups in the environmental domain and the associations for the environmental protection.
In the second chapter, this book deals with the definition of the study of the impact as is specified in the article 2 of the Law of the 10th of July 1976 modified in relation to nature. Besides, the article L123-13 specifies that "When the reforms or the works which were subject of a public survey did not begin within a period of five years from the decision, a new survey had to start except if an extension of five years at the most had been decided before the expiration date. This article doesn't put any obstacle to the application of more restricting arrangements which are provided for in the regulation suitable to each operation."
It needs to be said that this book which is composed of only one chapter in the title 5, includes the general tax on the polluting activities well-known under the initials T.G.A.P. Reminding us that this tax really makes part of the Customs Code (Article 266 sexies and next).
The 2nd book, divided into 2 titles, speaks about the control of the water and of the aquatic environment and, at the same time, of the control of the air and of the atmosphere.
It is important to specify that the article L224-4 makes clear that the administrative authorities concerned are entitled to order the conditions that stipulate the limitation of the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) as far as the refueling of the vehicles is concerned in the gas stations with a flow higher than 3 000 cubic meters per year.
This direction allows to prepare, in accordance with the requirement of the Directive of the European Union, the passage to the 2nd stage of the reprocessing of volatile organic compounds (VOC).
This new article is charged with consequences for the distributors because it obliges very important works on the volume indicators for a result on a long term only. In fact, to be used, the heavy and light vehicles need to be equipped of a system allowing the pick up of those pollutants. Contrary to the 1st stage, that is to say the one setting the pick up of the COV during the delivery, the pick up of the COV during the supply will not involve any new risk because they will be re-injected in one of the tanks of the station.
For the record, in the 1st stage, the COV are put back in the tank of the delivery vehicles and those trucks, when they run empty, have their tank full of flammable fumes. Then, in case of accident, the discharge of COV fumes, essentially made of methane will certainly make worse the consequences.
The 3rd book is divided into 6 titles and speaks about the natural spaces:
This book resumes the all-existing texts on the different points set up above and is used as a reference as far as penalties on the Town Planning Law are concerned. Nevertheless, it needs to be noted the repetition of the codified articles:
" Art L 331-4: The publicity is banned in national parks"
"Art L 331-5: On the land of a national park, it's compulsory to bury the electrical and telephonic networks. And, for the electrical lines with a tension lower than 19000 volts, it's necessary to use twisted cables placed on the front of the houses. And, all of this procedure at the time of the creation of new electrical and telephonic networks.
When technical and topographical constraints do not permit to bury the networks or when the risks to bury them are higher than using overhead lines, an exception can be made to this interdiction. A decree had to be signed by the minister in charge of the energy or of the telecommunications and by the one in charge of the environment.
This notification is repeated in the articles L332-14 and 15 for the nature reserves and in the article L341-11 for the conservation areas as far as the electrical fittings are concerned.
This point certainly allows a better understanding but this book makes heavy going. Furthermore, it shows the importance given to the landscape in these areas.
The 4th book mentions the faun and flora. In its 2nd title we can find the prescriptions of the law concerning hunting and in its 3rd concerning the fishing in fresh water.
The 5th book is the one that repeats the texts on the prevention of the pollution, risks and nuisances. It groups the main measures concerning:
This book is quite important and it will need a specific analysis.
Nevertheless, it needs to be noticed the introduction of a new idea that well known finally but not really used. It is a question of the periodical test of the installations classified by the protection of the environment subjected to declaration.
"Art. L. 512-11. - Some groups of installations are defined through a decree during the Council of State according to the risks that they present. They can be subject to periodical test permitting the owner to make sure that its installations run in accordance with the rules. Those tests are at the expenses of the owner and are carried out by certified organizations.
A decree that is analyzed during a Council of State clarifies the conditions of use of this article. It determines the periodicity and the ways of use of the control system. Furthermore, an agreement had to be found between the organizations, which were in charge of the control, to stay fair as just a way to provide the results to the administration.
At the present time, those activities are the most widely used and certainly the less known.
Presenting fewer risks that the activities subject to a previous authorization to operate, they are less supervised by the employees of the Regional Directions of the Research and of the Environment because of a lack of time. Nevertheless, they can cause pollution particularly to the water and the soils just as accidents (fire and explosion) and it is often due to a dysfunction that the existence of those activities are found out.
A regular checking will really allow a better supervision and a decreasing of the risks just as a better identification of the chronic pollution.
The 6th book stipulates the applicable arrangements in New-Caledonia, in the French Polynesia, in Wallis et Futuna, in the French austral and antarctic lands and in Mayotte.
III- The application is not going to happen in a hurry.
The legislative part of this new Environment Code still can not be used. As it's mentioned in the decree of the 18th of September 2000, the regulation part (Article R) has to be published before.
This new description of the way of acting as far as the protection of the environment is concerned will finally create coherence with the other important points handled by the French policy.
For the users, the changes will be very important because instead of dealing with laws and decrees hard to understand, they just will have to search the information in the book and in the title in relation with the inquiry to find the answer. Nevertheless, it needs to be said that a large part of the decrees will not be codified. In fact, just the one sign by the Council of State will have, exactly like all the other codes, this privilege. Moreover, the decrees and circulars will continue to be the reference.
In spite of these ultimate information, what a big thing for the users.
The last thing that we have to hope is that the laws and the decrees that are going to be published just before the real application of this Environment Code will be directly codified.
This new presentation of the regulation as far as the protection of the environment is concerned will change the habits of the users. In addition to that, it will be easier to understand, limiting the omissions and the wrong interpretation.
Jean-Jacques Nasset
Administrateur de l'IEC
