In just 2 days time, the Plenary Assembly of the European Parliament will make its final vote on the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. This is a crucial opportunity to convince our MEPs to support proposed amendments that will make environmental impact assessments mandatory for proposed fracking operations across the EU.
Earlier this year, the Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee voted overwhelmingly in favour of a report by MEP Zanoni on the European Commission’s proposals for a review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive.
The Committee notably adopted proposals to adapt the EIA Directive to the arrival of a new type of industrial-size activities in Europe, namely the plans to explore and extract unconventional hydrocarbon such as shale gas. The negative environmental, health and climate impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) have been well documented. The proposals in the Zanoni report allow us to take the necessary measures in order not to repeat the same mistakes observed in the US.
Now more than ever, support is needed to convince your respective MEPs to support the amendments including the unconventional fossil fuels in the Directive, in order to make sure that an EIA would be mandatory and systematic before the beginning of any new drilling operation.
Please contact your local MEPs now. Their details are here.
Here is a letter you may wish to send:
RE: September 11 – Plenary vote on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive – amendments on shale gas and other unconventional hydrocarbons
Dear MEP [NAME],
On July 11, the Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee voted overwhelmingly (49-13) in favour of a report by MEP Zanoni on the European Commission’s proposals for a review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive.
The Committee notably adopted proposals to adapt the EIA Directive to the arrival of a new type of industrial-size activities in Europe, namely the plans to explore and extract unconventional hydrocarbon such as shale gas in Europe. The negative environmental, health and climate impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing or fracking – the technique used to explore and extract such unconventional hydrocarbons – have been well documented since the shale gas drilling boom started a decade ago in the United States. The proposals in the Zanoni report allow us to take the necessary measures in order not to repeat the same mistakes observed in the US.
I respectfully ask you to offer your support to the current version of the Zanoni report and to the unchanged provisions on shale gas and other unconventional fossil fuels in particular amendments 31 and 79 point (e).
If large-scale UFF operations are allowed to go ahead in an unregulated way, this industry will repeat the same mistakes as in the United States, with the same dramatic impacts for the climate, environment and public health. I believe it is absolutely vital that this recommendation receives strong support, and I look to you to represent my views in this matter for the good of our constituency and for the rest of Europe.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
