CIEEM jointly writes to Prime Minister regarding Article 50 and Great Repeal Bill
Through Greener UK, CIEEM has – along with 46 other environmental organisations – written to Prime Minister Theresa May regarding the triggering of Article 50 and the Great Repeal Bill.
The triggering of Article 50 has significant environmental implications but also provides an opportunity to give UK citizens the best environmental systems in the world, making the UK a place where people are proud to live and do business. It is therefore critical that strengthened environmental protection is a priority as the UK moves towards exiting the EU and negotiating a new relationship with our neighbours.
To ensure that the UK maintains its environmental and animal welfare protections as it exits the EU and lays the foundations for enhancing them in the future, the first step is to ensure that the proposed Great Repeal Bill and the processes it establishes provide regulatory certainty for the environment and its stakeholders, including businesses, and lays the groundwork for future environmental co-operation with the EU. As such, we believe the Bill needs to:
- convert all existing EU environmental law, including principles, into domestic law on the statute books;
- confine any ministerial powers to create statutory instruments to the purpose of faithful transposition. Any changes to these laws should be made by primary legislation only, giving a full and proper role to the Westminster parliament and, where relevant, the devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland;
- introduce new governance arrangements that ensure the continued provision of robust regulatory, monitoring, enforcement and other functions currently provided by the EU institutions.
Find out more about CIEEM’s Brexit activities