Debunking misleading claims about the IED compensation right

The IED compensation right grants victims suffering from health damage due to illegal pollution the right to ask for compensation. Today, even in cases of illegal pollution, people suffering from health issues are essentially abandoned because there are no effective, harmonised rules to ask for remedy before the courts(cf. Recital 33 IED proposal).

The ENVI committee compromise(AM 218-222) is weaker than the Commission proposal, but at least, it seeks to finda faire rbalance of responsibilities between unlawfully acting industries and their victims–taking into account that the essential information is often with the industry.

If sufficient evidence has been provided by the victim, there is a presumption of the causal link between the IED violation–which can always be rebutted by the operator. This is NOT a reversal of burden of proof, but merely a rebuttable presumption.

Anything less would be meaningless.

The compensation right has been surrounded by misleading claims –but we have the facts.