European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — New Clause 67 — European Union Treaty — Human Health and Environmental Protection Principles — 15 Nov 2017 at 22:15

The majority of MPs voted against continuing to apply principle on protecting human health and the environment contained in Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union after the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the union.

The principles in question are:

• preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment,
• protecting human health,
• prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources,
• promoting measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems, and in particular combating climate change.

MPs were considering the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill^[1].

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: Environmental protection: principles under Article 191 of TFEU and stated:

• ‘(1) Principles contained in Article 191 of TFEU in relation to environmental protection and listed in subsection (2) shall continue to be recognised and applied on and after exit day.
• (2) The principles are—
• (a) the precautionary principle as it relates to the environment,
• (b) the principle that preventive action should be taken to avert environmental damage,
• (c) the principle that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source, and
• (d) the principle that the polluter should pay.’—(Matthew Pennycook.)

This rejected amendment was accompanied by the following explanatory note:

• This new clause would ensure that environmental principles under Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union would continue to apply in the UK after exit day.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Debate in Parliament |