Mr. Brendan O'Neill:

As Mr. Macken was saying, this proposal was launched in September 2006. There was a chapter on contaminated land. The European Commission was proposing that the very systematic assessment of contaminated land would be such that the land would be checked bearing in mind its former use and chemical analysis would be done to determine the level of contamination. Afterwards, one would put in place a remediation programme for all sites. A number of member states felt this would be very expensive and difficult and that it was not a case of good prioritisation. Many of the major member states felt it was a question of going to the sites that they knew presented serious risks and which would pose a danger to the population if they were used for schools, for example. They are very much against checking everything more or less in the same way and they question the expense of remediation at the sites. That is the main reason for the blockage. The member states are seeking a more risk-based approach such that they would assess the risk associated with the activities that took place on the sites and then determine what needs to be done based on the proposed new use. This is the main difficulty. The Commission is insisting that there be a systematic approach.