Environmental Code

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The Environmental Code (UGB) was a German draft law at federal level , with which German environmental law was to be codified nationwide. After the so-called "professors' drafts" from the 1990s, the draft of the commission, the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) drafted the ministerial drafts. At the end of January 2009, the German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel declared the Environmental Code to have failed.

History of origin

Due to the large number of individual legal regulations in environmental law, the desire arose for standardization and harmonization similar to the social code . The first preparatory work on harmonizing environmental law was carried out at the end of the 1970s.

Professor designs

On behalf of the Federal Environment Ministry and the Federal Environment Agency, two professors' drafts for the two parts of an environmental code were submitted. The first draft was completed in 1990. It is written as a “general part” of the Environmental Code and includes, for the various areas of environmental law, among other things, goals, principles and instruments of environmental protection. The second draft was created in 1994 and forms the "special part" of the environmental code. The regulations contained therein relate to the individual environmental media and certain areas of environmental protection. The draft includes the chapters of nature conservation and landscape management, water protection and water management, soil protection, immission control, nuclear energy and radiation protection, hazardous substances as well as waste management and waste disposal. Other environmentally relevant legal areas such as genetic engineering or uniform law for traffic facilities were not regulated in the special part due to the specifications of the client. Both drafts together consist of 598 paragraphs.

Draft by the independent expert commission

In 1992, the then Federal Environment Minister Klaus Töpfer set up an independent expert commission, which was commissioned to submit a draft for a uniform environmental code based on the professor's draft by the end of 1997. The former President of the Federal Administrative Court, Horst Sendler, chaired the meeting . Compared to the professor's draft, the chapters “Traffic systems and pipeline systems” and “Genetic engineering and other biotechnology” were added. In addition, the title “Immissionsschutz” has been expanded to include energy supply. The commission drafted a total of 775 regulations as well as a detailed justification for the draft.

Draft bill

At the beginning of 1999 the Federal Environment Ministry created a draft for a “First Book on the UGB” on the basis of the Commission's draft. Above all, this should regulate the licensing and monitoring law for industrial plants. The distribution of legislative competences between the federal and state governments prevented the introduction of an environmental code until 2006.

Failure of the legislative process

With the federalism reform that came into force on September 1, 2006 , the federal framework legislation for nature conservation and water was expanded and the federal government now has the opportunity to make full regulations for these areas. The merging of the environmental laws into a uniform environmental code was agreed in the coalition agreement of 2005 between the SPD and CDU / CSU . In June 2008 hearings of the federal states and the associations took place on the draft bill of the Federal Environment Ministry.

On February 1, 2009, Federal Environment Minister Gabriel announced the final failure of the Environmental Code. He cited the resistance of the Bavarian state government and the CSU as the reason .

Bills after the failure

The regulations initially intended for the Environmental Code have been incorporated into the following laws:

This means that in Germany uniform national legal bases apply to these subject areas, unless the states have made use of their right to deviate.

literature

  • Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Ed.): Environmental Code (UGB-KomE) - Draft of the Independent Expert Commission on the Environmental Code at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09226-0
  • Christian Calliess : European law requirements for an environmental code . Natur und Recht 28 (10), pp. 601-614 (2006), ISSN  0172-1631
  • Michael Kloepfer : The meaning and shape of the upcoming environmental code. Environmental and Planning Law 27 (5), pp. 161–170 (2007), ISSN  0721-7390
  • Uwe Müller, Benjamin Klein: The New Legislative Competence of “Divergent State Legislation” and the Enactment of a Federal Environmental Code in Germany . Journal for European Environmental and Planning Law (JEEPL) issue 3/2007, p. 181 ff., ISSN  1613-7272 , table of contents

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Draft bill for the Environmental Code (UGB 2009). Archived from the original on May 21, 2009 ; accessed on March 29, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b Press release from the Federal Environment Ministry: Environmental Code failed due to resistance from Bavaria and the Union (February 1, 2009)
  3. ↑ UBA page on the Environmental Code
  4. ^ Kloepfer, Rehbinder, Schmidt-Aßmann, Kunig 1990: Environmental Code - General Part. Report of the Federal Environment Agency 7/90. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.
  5. ↑ Jarass, Kloepfer, Kunig, Papier, Peine, Rehbinder, Salzwedel, Schmidt-Aßmann 1994: Environmental Code - Special Part. Report of the Federal Environment Agency 4/94. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.