Is there or if not could there be a European SUPERFUND of some kind or other?

Anja Schirmeisen

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2006
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783640084524
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: International Law
• Index: Law

Master's Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, grade: merit (72%), University of the West of England, Bristol, language: English, abstract: Superfund is the American Federal government's program to clean up the uncontrolled hazardous waste sites in the USA. Over the past 25 years the Superfund program has located and analyzed tens of thousands of hazardous waste sites and protected human health and the environment from contamination.1 In its best years between 1997 to 2000 Superfund successfully completed on average 86 cleanup activities on previously contaminated sites.2 From 1992 to 1996 there were on average completed cleanups of 68 sites per year, whereas from 2001 to 2004 there were completed clean ups of on average only 42 sites per year. 3 In 2005 not more than 8 completions of cleanups were carried out. 4 This dissertation deals with the question whether there is a similar model in Europe that treats contaminated sites and if there is not such a model at the European level the next question is whether such a model could be a good solution to clean up of hazardous waste sites in Europe in the future. The following discussion will deal with the US model of Superfund in the first chapter. The Superfund model will be described. Moreover its advantages and flaws will be dealt with. In the second chapter, there will be an introduction to the system of environmental liability in Europe and the European fund systems which are relevant for soil contamination. The third chapter will provide a comparative analysis of the cleanup and fund systems in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Finally the fifth chapter will analyse the question whether there could be a Superfund model at the European level. This chapter is divided into four parts. The first question is whether there is a Superfund model in Europe already now. In this context there will be looked at norms dealing with soil contamination at the European level and rules dealing with the environmental civil liability system in Europe. Furthermore there will be made four proposals for a fund system in Europe. These different solutions will be discussed and in the end there will be discussed the question whether the European Union could take over the whole system of the US Superfund model. In the end a conclusion will be drawn, arguing that there already is partially a Superfund system in Europe contained in Directive 2004/35/CE and that there will be a more comprehensive framework directive and daughter directives that will deal with soil contamination in the future.